Operation Recovery
by Avengeful Fox
Summary: Team Star Fox may be responsible for bringing down the worst threats to the Lylat System, but what about the Cornarian regulars? This first chapter introduces you to a small team in the massive Cornarian Armed Forces as you follow them on their most recent mission.
1. Chapter 1: Omega Squad

Operation: Recovery

Chapter 1: **Omega Squad**

"You know, you're not helping yourself out. The sooner you talk, the sooner we'll stop beating you and the sooner you can go. So, how about it?"

"Forget it; he's not going to talk."

"That's too bad for him. We've got ways to make pilots squeal like stuck pigs."

Hang on; maybe a little explanation's in order before we jump right into things. My name's Matt Rayes, I'm a captain in the C.A.F. or Cornerian Armed Forces. I'm five-foot ten, I'm a silver fox, I'm twenty-six, and I've been a pilot for a little more than two years now serving all my time with the illustrious Coyote Unit (I'm using the word illustrious sarcastically, by the way). I could sit here and list off some of its greater accomplishments; our amazing feats of bravery, courage, and tactical supremacy but honestly, no one cares right? The only time my unit, heck, the only time the C.A.F. makes the news on Corneria is when we've screwed up badly or we've been saved by Star Fox, the greatest band of mercenaries in the Lylat System (or so every news station and website dedicated to reporting "just the facts" would have you believe). I guess I should be fair, they have the same effect on most guys sitting in barracks or on ships (like yours truly) that they do on everyone else. Guys look up to Fox McCloud, the heroic leader of the group, and are still trying their best to beat the times he set on the simulators when he was still training with the C.A.F. Mechanics and techies try their best to be as ingenious and inventive as Slippy Toad is on the Great Fox with our own arwings, cruisers, and everything else they work on. Peppy Hare, the oldest and by far the wisest member of Star Fox, is on every high ranking brasses speed dial for when they need advice. Then of course there's Falco Lombardi, the epitome of cool by most guys (and girls) standards. And last but not least the newest member of Star Fox and envy of every pilot I know, Krystal, the blue vixen that any guy would give his pilot's license to see naked and would probably give up their lives to have sex with just once.

That's enough about them for now though, let's talk about my unit. Coyote Unit's part of the C.A.F.'s 5th division whose purpose is mainly anti-piracy; we protect the government's ships and supply caravans from raiders and bandits wherever we need to. If we're not protecting ships and stations from pirates we're hunting them usually to little or no success. In the C.A.F. each division is made of five units, three on duty and two acting as reserves. Each unit is made up of three squads, designated Alpha, which is the lead squad, Beta, which flies left of Alpha in combat, and Omega, the squad I belong to, which flies to the right of Alpha. Each squad has five pilots in it, and each unit shares two mechanics. Divisions are deployed on carriers which are then deployed where they're needed. My unit is deployed on the Cornerian Armed Force's Savannah, along with her sister units Dingo and Jackal. Each carrier has one high-ranking officer on it, an XO under him, then the Unit leaders, or majors, then the squad leaders or captains before at the bottom of the food-chain the lieutenants. And that leads me to Coyote Unit's most recent mission. The day we got our orders had started no differently than the others we'd run.

I was lying in my bunk in the ship's barracks, a small metallic room with enough room for sixteen beds in rows of eight on either side of the door. Even though dinner was being served I wanted to finish reading a magazine on a data tablet before I left. I looked up as the only door into the barracks on my left opened.

"Hey! You're missing dinner!" Vivian Wilde, a high spirited lynx and one of my squad mates said, stepping into the barracks.

"I know, I know." I said, looking up at her for a moment, "I'll meet you down at the mess hall in a few." She shrugged and turned to leave before stopping suddenly. She turned back around and stared at me curiously.

"What're you reading?" She asked, stepping closer.

"Just some piece on General Pepper's health." I said, glancing up at her again. "He hasn't been doing very good recently."  
'Really?" She asked, now standing only a few feet away. "Are you sure you're not…" In a swift move she covered the remaining distance and snatched the tablet out of my hands.

"Hey!" I shouted, reaching up to get it. Vivian held the tablet above her and stared at the screen. Her smile turned devious as she made out what I'd been staring at for the past few minutes.

"An article on Pepper's health huh?" Vivian said, flipping through the virtual pages of the tablet. "I didn't think _Hot Rods, Hotter Tails _cared." Embarrassed, I stopped trying to grab the tablet back and sighed.

"Okay, you got me." I said.

"Don't worry, I won't tell Duke you stole his magazine." Vivian said, still smiling. Duke Kingston was another member of my squad. Aside from being ripped, six foot, and a pure-bred arctic wolf, the guy hated it when people stole stuff from him especially from his "stash". The last time Duke caught someone with his favorite issue of _Vivacious Vixens_ he'd broke their hands just by squeezing them in his.

"What'll cost me?" I asked, knowing Vivian's silence would come with a price.

"The next time we get leave you're buying." She said, handing the tablet back to me. I considered her offer for a minute. Vivian wasn't a light drinker, but I'd rather have to pay for thirty rounds then have to try and fly with broken hands.

"Deal." I said, getting out of my bunk. I walked over to Duke's bunk, pulled the footlocker out from under his bed and put the tablet back. Vivian continued to watch me before, motioning for me to follow her; we made our way out of barracks and to the mess hall where we caught a quick meal.

We got back to the barracks just in time to hear an announcement over the ship's intercom system announcing an inspection of each Unit's barracks. Everyone ran around straightening up their bunks, making sure nothing was left lying out and doing their best to look presentable. We finished an instant before the slim shadow of my CO Brigadier General Grimmsley, a white schnauzer with a bite much worse than his bark, appeared in the door. Grimmsley strode into the room, a tuft of white fur covering his eyes as he surveyed the uniforms of his troops. He walked slowly down the aisle, surveying all the troops on one side of the room. He stopped for a moment in front of me and I could sense his eyes looking up and down my uniform before, with a nod, he moved on and I slacked a little. He stopped again at the bunk to my right, Duke's, and looked him up and down. Grimmsley frowned as he noticed that the top button on Duke's uniform was undone.

"You're out of uniform, lieutenant…" Grimmsley said in his stern, steady, voice.

"Yeah, sorry sir," Duke said, trying to both remain straight and look down at his shirt, "it's just… buttoned up, my uniform doesn't show off my massive—"  
"Do I look like I care lieutenant?" Grimmsley asked. "Do you think I'd run around the ship naked if I thought these slacks pinched my balls? Button it up now or you'll get to clean the barracks floor for the next two months." Duke glared at his CO before, with a defiant shake of his head, said,

"No sir." Grimmsley raised an eyebrow; surprised by Duke's defiance.

"Button it up, lieutenant." Grimmsley repeated, but again Duke shook his head. Grimmsley grabbed Duke's shirt collar, pulling the massive wolf down to his level with ease, "this is your last warning lieutenant before I personally mop the floor with your stupid mug."

"Try it." Duke snarled. Grimmsley, not hesitating a moment, flipped Duke over his shoulder and onto the floor before planting one foot on Duke's head and making good on his promise. Duke tried to push himself up, but each time he tried Grimmsley would stomp on Duke's arms with his free leg, forcing him back to the ground. It took Duke nearly five minutes before he finally realized he'd been beaten and gave up. Grimmsley took his foot off Duke's head and continued his inspection. Grimmsley stopped again a few spots further down.

"Sir!" Thomas Jackson, leader of Coyote Unit said, standing to attention and saluting.

"At ease Major." Grimmsley said, looking over my unit's leader. Jackson had always been a good guy, but there were three things that really pushed him ahead of anyone else to land the position he had. First was the fact that, lucky for him, he was a coyote so it only made sense for him to lead Coyote Unit. Second, Jackson had a knack for somehow managing to save people's hides in the nick of time whether that meant out in dog-fights or with the brass it didn't matter. Third and by far the most important to his success was Jackson's amazing ability to kiss ass.

"If there's anything I can do to better my unit sir, I'm sure it's in your wisdom to let me know." Jackson said.

"Brown noser." Duke muttered as he stood back up. Grimmsley looked back at Duke for a moment before turning back to Jackson.

"If anything comes to mind Major, I'll let you know." Grimmsley said, continuing down the line of men and women. Grimmsley stopped at the far end of the barracks before turning around and continuing to review the men on the other side of the room. An empty spot in the line across from my bunk caught his attention.

"Lieutenant Starr…" Grimmsley muttered, thinking. "Omega squad." He added, turning to face me. "Captain Rayes, where's your missing lieutenant?"

"Medical bay sir." I said, straightening up as much as I could. "An engineer on the flight deck ran over his foot with a supply cart." I had to fight the urge to smile. Charles Starr, or Chuckles, as everyone who wasn't too high up to have a sense of humor called him, was an extremely unlucky hyena in my squad. In his short career with the C.A.F. Chuckle's had been burned by his own engine, almost blown up by his own smart bomb in a dog-fight, had his wings clipped by a rouge asteroid, had his hands crushed by Duke, and had had limbs crushed by supply carts three different times (and that's just on duty; I've stopped trying to count the number of times he'd been beaten up by drunks in bars). Grimmsley nodded before moving on to the empty bunk next to Chuckles. He stopped for a moment, stared down at the empty spot and sighed. Omega Squad's fifth pilot had been Lieutenant John Jenkins, a young hound dog with a lot of potential and Brigadier General Grimmsley's nephew. On our last mission over Macbeth, Jenkins had been ambushed by a squad of fighters and his arwing had been shot down. I remember watching as smoke trailed up from his ship as it spiraled down to the surface below, watching for the explosion that meant he was definitely gone, but it never came. The Brigadier General, knowing there was a small chance that his nephew could've survived, ordered all of Coyote Unit (as well as all of Dingo and Jackal units) to search the planet for Jenkins's ship. I can't remember who found the wreckage, but I knew when I flew past that there was no way he could've survived, and he didn't. I know he denies it, but I swear Grimmsley blames me for Jenkins's death and he pushes me harder than anyone else on the ship because of it.

After finishing his inspection Grimmsley turned around to face all of Coyote Unit.

"There's more to my visit then just an inspection." He said. "Tomorrow we're escorting a convoy of three ships, Seeker, Curiosity, and Discovery, all of which contain scientists and junk they've dug up, from Titania back to Cornaria. I need all of you in your arwings and ready to launch by 0700; you're to cover the third ship, Discovery while Dingo covers Seeker and Jackal covers Curiosity. I shouldn't have to remind you how bad Titania can get, so I want all of you to keep your eyes open for anything out of the ordinary. I don't care if it's a meteorite the size of a gumball, if it doesn't belong; blast it. Those are your orders _for now_. Dismissed." Everyone saluted the Brigadier General as he left. Vivian waited until she was absolutely sure that he was gone before saying,

"I wonder how far up his ass my nose'd have to go to get a promotion."

"Too far." Duke said, lying down in his bunk. "I'd rather be stuck as a grunt then suck up to him."

"But think of all the perks of being a captain." She said.

"Yeah, you get blamed every time somebody in your unit messes up." I said, following Dukes example.

"If it's such a bad gig, why're you a captain then?" Vivian asked.

"To pick up chicks." Duke said, smiling. "Saying he's a 'captain' sounds a lot cooler then saying he's a nobody like the rest of us."

"Bull." Vivian said, sitting down on her bunk. "Come on! There has to be some reason!"

"Do you mean other then the fact that you don't say no to Grimmsley without him using your face as a mop?" I said. Vivian remained silent so I figured she was waiting for something more. I wracked my brain for a minute, trying to come up with anything and the thoughts of my family came to the surface. I know it sounds stupid and maybe a little cliché, but I guess I felt like with as well as they raised me the least I could do is make a name for the Rayes since nobody in my family had done anything noteworthy. "Nope. No other reason." I lied, rolling over on my side. That didn't stop Vivian though. She kept trying to get a real answer out of me for ten minutes after that before she finally gave up.


	2. Chapter 2: It's Quiet, Too Quiet

Operation: Recovery

Chapter 2: **It's Quiet, Too Quiet**

I don't remember falling asleep that night but I do remember be awoken by the alarm the next morning and falling out of my bunk. It took me a minute to recover before I followed everyone else rushing out of the barracks heading for the flight deck. The sounds of the engineers making last minute checks on the arwings hit me long before I made my way into the massive, chaotic hub that is the hangar. The hangar was divided into three sections (one for each unit) designated by colored lights; yellow for my unit, orange for dingo, and red for jackal. Three rows of five arwings, alpha squad in front followed by beta and omega, sat in the middle of each section. On the same side of the hangar as Coyote Unit was a barrier that kept the air inside the ship in but allowed arwings to leave. I ran to the far end of the hangar where our ships were and stopped an engineer checking the thruster systems on one of my unit's ships.

"Are we good to go?" I asked him. He gave me a thumbs up and I ran over to my arwing in the middle of the back row and jumped up on the wing. I grabbed my helmet out of the cockpit, tossed it on my head, and hopped down into my seat. I watched the rest of my squad get in their arwings before activating the comms unit in my helmet.

"Everyone here?" I asked.

"Yup!" Vivian said, turning towards me and giving me a thumbs up.

"I'm here." Duke said.

"Where's Chuckles?" I asked.

"Just running a little late captain." The Hyena added. I turned to look at his ship, to my left past Vivian's, and watched him climb into it.

"You sure you're okay to fly?" I asked him.

"Yeah, I just bruised something or something." He said. "Course I'm not lucky enough to actually break something." I heard him mutter. We had to wait a minute before the rest of Coyote Unit got into their ships and Major Jackson voice broke in over the comms channel.

"Coyote Unit! Report in!" He shouted. One by one everyone responded. "All right! Let's do this!" He added after Duke responded. Our arwing's canopies closed and the engineers on the deck ran to safety as the magnetic locks holding the arwings down disengaged. Row by row the arwings launched into space. I followed the rest of my unit as it veered right towards a group of three ships the same dull brown as the ringed planet behind them and we took up position around the last one in the convoy; Alpha squad above, Beta on the ships right and Omega on the left.

"Remember! We need to shoot any gumball sized meteorites!" Vivian said, bursting in over the comms channel.

"Take this seriously Lieutenant." Jackson responded. "Things could change at any moment; so keep your guard up!"

For once though, Major Jackson was wrong. To my surprise (as well as everyone else I'm pretty sure) nothing happened. With Titania far behind us, Brigadier General Grimmsley's voice crackled in our ears giving us our updated orders.

"I'm tempted to keep you all out there." He said. Everyone gave a collective groan, and Grimmsley tried his best to ignore it. "I said I'm tempted. Since the past attacks have all happened within a short range of Titania I have no reason to suspect an attack out here in the middle of nowhere. So, I'm recalling all units' Beta and Omega squads for now. Alpha squad's in all units are to remain flying above their designated target for another four hours at which point beta squad will take their place. Four hours after that, Omega squad's will take the place of the Beta squads, followed by the Alpha squads again four hours after that. I want whatever unit's due to go out on immediate stand-by; that means be able to hop in your arwing and get out to your target in two minutes Beta squads. Omega squads and all squads not on immediate stand-by should be able to launch in five minutes. Grimmsley out."

My squad flew under our ship and followed Beta along the right side of the first two ships in the convoy and into the hangar on the carrier. As we landed and our canopies popped open, Coyote Unit's engineers rushed over to inspect the ships and refuel them. Beta squad made their way over to the side of the hangar where they sat down with their backs to the wall. I hopped out of my arwing and, along with the rest of my squad, returned to the barracks in the hopes of getting even a few more hours of sleep. None of us could, of course, with the threat of a raid hanging over our heads so we lay down and stared up at the ceiling.

"Do you think we just got lucky?" Vivian asked. "I mean, I guess I wasn't expecting anything but still…"

"Maybe they saw us and turned tail." Duke said. "I wouldn't blame them for not wanting to tangle with us."

"Yeah right." Vivian said. "Pirate's are stupid and desperate. I don't think a handful of fighters would stop them."

"So…?" Chuckles asked. "Lucky?" I took a moment to look at Chuckles.

"With a good luck charm like you in our squad?" I said, smiling. "No way."

"Hey!" He said, sitting up and glaring at me. He sighed. "Maybe they're watching us and they were just waiting for a moment when we dropped our defenses."

"So now?" Vivian asked. Chuckles thought about it for a moment but then shook his head.

"No, not yet." He said, thinking. "We've got three squads waiting to lift off and engage at any moment. They'd wait for a little bit longer or, even better; wait until we're changing guards. With one squad leaving the ship, and one squad not quite there, it would be the perfect time to hit us."

"Yeah, but even then we'd be able to see them a mile away so long as our carrier's radar's online." I said. "Even if they wait until we're changing shifts and try to hit us then, we'd see them coming and blast them out of the sky." We all went silent for a minute while we thought it over.

"I guess all we can do is wait and see." Vivian said half shrugging. Everyone nodded in agreement before going back to failing to sleep.

Everyone's experienced boredom in their life but nothing like what pilots feel in moments like the one we were in. It's not that there's nothing to do, it's that you have to do nothing for hours. Nobody bothers to talk because the alarm could go off at any moment, cutting off whatever you were going to say. No point in going to go get something to eat either since the same thing could happen. So, you sit, and you wait for four hours until it's your turn to go sit in the hangar, or fly escort, or back to your bunk, with those little changes being the only thing to happen. This went on for two days. At some point exhaustion took over and I actually managed to fall asleep for a few hours (not all of those being in my bunk) and food was brought to the men in the hangar so we did get to eat. Someone also had the common sense to lug some chairs into the hangar for the pilots to sit on, making their waiting a little less miserable. It wasn't until about halfway through the third day that the Omega squads were treated to a change in scenery.

"…aaand if you look off to your left you can see beautiful Sector X, and the blue-green nebula that gives it its distinctive name." Chuckles said over the comms channel. "For a view of the scattered remains of Andross's once secret base, please just look all around you."

"What happened here?" Vivian asked.

"You don't know?" Duke asked. Vivian shook her head and, realizing Duke couldn't see her, quickly added,

"No."

"Apparently, Andross built some sort of super weapon and it went rouge." Duke said. "It ripped every square inch of the base to shreds before Star Fox showed up and took it out." We all turned our attentions forward as the sound of the carriers' batteries firing hit us.

"There're huge pieces of debris blocking our path." Grimmsley's voice said in our ears. "We can't go around this before anyone out there suggests it. We're already waist deep in it, the amount of time and energy it would take to back all four ships out of this junk before getting back on track isn't worth it. I want all active squads to blast any debris we miss. If anything larger than your arwing hits the ship your guarding it'll take out its shields and any hit after that'll tear right through their thin hulls. That's all for now." There were a few awkward moments of silence after that before Duke asked,

"Whose bright idea was it to go through again?" I was about to respond when something caught my eye; a large chunk of metal floated past my ship and I had to slam on the brakes to stop myself from crashing into it. "Hey captain! There's floating junk out here you uh, might want to watch out for it." I was about to say something when something else cut me off, something much worse than random space junk. An explosion above the ship in front of us, the Seeker, made everyone, not just my squad but the other Omega squads as well, turn.

"Dingo Unit! Report! What the hell just happened?" Grimmsley's voice said over the comms channel.

"We're not sure sir." The captain of Dingo Unit's Omega Squad responded. "It happened behind us. Should we—"A second explosion, this time next to the Curiosity, the ship directly behind the carrier, caused everyone to stop but it was the next two words over the radio that sent everyone into action,

"Enemy fighters!" Someone in Jackal Unit shouted. "They're hiding in the junk!" As if on cue, fighters poured out from behind every decent sized piece of junk in a hundred mile radius and charged at us.

"An ambush?!" Grimmsley shouted. "Damn it! Launch all fighters! I repeat, launch all fighters! We're under attack!" I watched a group of five fighters fly past the front of the ship and veer up and to the right before I finally decided what to do.

"All right Omega, open fire! Keep those pirates away from the Discovery and watch your tails! I don't want to have to explain to Grimmsley that we're down two pilots." I shouted, jetting after them.

"You got it!" Vivian shouted, rolling left and chasing a group of five fighters that'd just flown under the ship. I watched Duke roll away to the right before turning my attention to group I was chasing.

I took aim at the middle most ship and fired several shots off. Every shot missed though, and I watched as the fighters to the left and right of the one I'd been shooting at broke away. I took aim again and let another burst of shots go, but watched as my target rolled to the right and dodged everything I threw at it again. I swore and readied myself again. I pressed down the trigger to fire my arwing's laser and held it down, giving it a moment to charge. I waited a moment for my ship's computer to lock-on before releasing the trigger. I watched with a smile as a ball of green energy shot out from the front my arwing and flew across the short distance between me and the ship I was chasing. He tried to roll again, hoping to dodge death a second time, but it was no good; as it hit his ship it caught fire and moments later, exploded. I went to turn back towards the ship but reconsidered it as a hail of enemy fire came raining down on me. I rolled, managing to deflect most of the fire and slamming on the brakes to dodge the rest. I was hoping my pursuers would fly past me, but they all slammed on the brakes as well. Resorting to the last trick in my book, I slammed on the accelerator and launched myself into a summersault over the ships perusing me. I landed behind them and managed to take out two of them with shots from my lasers before they had any chance of reacting. The last of the ships must've realized how much trouble he was in, and he tried to veer hard to the right but I had a charge shot ready half a second later and I took him out. I smiled for a second before several shots from behind hit me and I remembered that there'd been four ships chasing me and I'd only managed to shoot down three. I was about to try another summersault when Vivian's voice broke in over the comms channel,

"I've got your back!" She shouted, appearing out of nowhere and blasting my pursuer out of the sky.

"I owe you one." I said.

"You owe me a lot more than that." She said smiling.

"Hey! Where are you guys?" Chuckles asked. "Am I seriously the only one guarding this ship? There're a good twenty fighters swarming around it and I can't handle them all by myself!" I looked around for a moment and saw the convoy farther away than I remembered it being. I considered cursing my own stupidity for a minute but figured it'd be better if I turned around and flew back towards the ship I was supposed to be guarding.

"Hang in there Chuckles," I said, doing a u-turn, "I'm on my way."

Shortly after I got back to the Discovery things went horribly wrong. The Alpha squads had been half asleep and were late to deploy. Enemy fighters had begun attacking the carrier in force and every Alpha squad fighter had had to be deployed around the carrier to fight off the attackers since all of the carrier's guns were focused on blasting scrap which posed just as big of a threat to the ships as the raiders. Since the Alpha's had been so slow to deploy, the Beta's were still stuck in the Savannah and wouldn't be deployed for another ten minutes at least. Even then, there was no guarantee that a majority of them wouldn't be deployed to protect the carrier instead of the other ships. In short, the Omega's were stuck trying to defend the scientists' ships in one of the most uneven dogfights in any of our lives.

I decided not to go chasing anymore fighter squads off into the junk and instead focused on, at the very least, chasing them away. Over the next hour I saw Duke chase two wounded squads of enemy fighters into the junk and each time he came back without a scratch. Chuckles and I tried our best to keep everything away from the bridge of the Discovery, knowing that one well placed shot would not only tear through the vessel's paper-thin shields but the glass on the observation deck as well. No one from Coyote's Beta squad ever showed up, leaving the Discovery with only four defending fighters. Reports from the front of the convoy never got any better; somehow the enemy's fighters kept coming no matter how many we shot down. After another half an hour of hard fighting though, things suddenly calmed down. The call went out that we'd managed to beat off the enemy and that they were retreating and, to make things even better, we were almost clear of the wreckage.

Too bad almost doesn't count in dogfights and things that are too good to be true usually are. Things were quiet one moment; the last of the enemy fleeing into the junk then an explosion portside of the carrier caught everyone off guard. In the second we had to think about it we thought maybe a careless fighter and flown into something or maybe it was a mine left over from Andross's old base. The next second though a bright red bolt of plasma cut through the space where the junk had just been and hit our carrier. Sparks flew off it as the Savannah's shields struggled to cope with the damage.

"What was that?" Chuckles asked. A moment later someone answered his question.

"Brigadier General Grimmsley! It's an enemy frigate!" The carrier's radarman said.

"Of course it is." Grimmsley said. "Why didn't we pick it up before?"

"With all the debris floating around out there it's almost impossible to tell the junk apart from everything else." The radarman said.

"How much longer until we're out of this junk?" Grimmsley asked.

"At least ten minutes sir." Someone else on the carrier said.

"Great." Grimmsley said, sighing. "For anyone out there who missed that, we're sitting ducks at the moment. Our guns need to keep focused forward so that means it's up to you to at the very least disable the guns on that thing and soon. If they score another direct hit there's no telling whether we'll survive it. I want all power from any system that's not the engines, life support or our guns rerouted into our shields! That includes communications."

"But sir—"

"Do it!" As the radio went silent more enemy fighters then we'd care to see swarmed out of the junk and flew straight at our convoy. Major Jackson quickly took control of the situation.

"You heard him! It's up to us! I want all available fighters out here! We'll need every man we have if we're going to pull this off! I want every available Beta squad out here defending the carrier! Alpha squads for Dingo and Jackal, go reinforce your Omega squads. My squad keep me covered; I'm going after that gun."

"What about us?" Chuckles asked.

"Guess we're stuck high and dry." I said shrugging.

"Incoming!" Duke said as the first of the fighters reached us.

"All right! Chuckles, you and I'll keep this thing's bridge covered. Duke, Vivian, I want you to play offense; give anyone who gets too close a good reason not to come back. Got it?"

"You got it captain!" Duke said, angling his ship towards a group of fighters.

"I saw 'em first!" Vivian shouted, pressing down on her ships throttle and passing Duke. I'm sure Duke would've complained if a second, larger group of fighters had moments later flown within range. As he chased them off into the junk more and more fighters (no doubt drawn in by the fact that only two arwings were guarding one of their targets) came diving towards me and Chuckles. We managed to stop most of them from damaging the Discovery when, in a sudden act of desperation, enemy fighters began diving into the scientist ship as we shot them full of holes.

"Damn it!" I shouted as another enemy fighter crashed into the hull.

"We can't take another hit!" Someone on board the Discovery said through the comms channel. "Our shields are dangerously low!" I switched the channel before shouting into my helmet's mike,

"This is Coyote's Omega squad! We're in danger of losing our ship! Can anyone out there assist?"

"This is Dingo's Alpha pack leader; that's a negative we're cutting it too close to spare any of our men."

"This is Jackal's Beta squad captain; we're a no-go on reinforcements as well!"

"Damn it!" I shouted back. "If we don't get relief soon—"I had to stop as a group of enemy fighters suddenly appeared on my tail. I quickly tried to shake them, slowing down, speeding up, I even tried to summersault over them but somehow they stayed behind me. Their shots rained down on my arwing with deadly accuracy and no amount of rolling would keep every shot from hitting me. I looked desperately towards the junk, thinking maybe if nothing else I could lose them, but I wasn't about to leave the scientists on that ship almost defenseless.

"In over your head again huh?" Vivian said. "I've got you covered!" I watched, speechless, as her ship came flying up at the six ships behind me and blasted them all out of the sky. Her ship streaked through the left over junk before she joined me on my wing.

"How many do I owe you now?" I asked, looking over at her.

"Too many." She said smiling. I sighed, shaking my head, before asking over the comms channel,

"How soon can you get back here Duke? We need to rethink our strategy." There was a moment of silence before Duke responded.

"That'll be a problem captain." He said. I was about to ask when his ship came into view. It was in bad shape; his canopy was charred from laser blasts, his wings were full of holes, and his thrusters were flickering on and off. He pulled up on my right and I had to fight the urge to cringe; other than his ship's physical damage the controls inside the cockpit were sparking.

"What happened?" I asked.

"You saw me chase that second group off into the junk right?" He asked. I nodded. "Turns out they had friends out there and, let's just say they weren't so easy to get rid of." I looked his ship over once before, with a sigh and a shake of my head, I said,

"There's no way I'm going to let you stay out here. Chuckles!"

"Behind you Captain!" He responded.

"I want you to escort Duke back to the Savannah for repairs." I said. "Me and Vivian'll try and—"  
"If it's all the same to you Captain," Duke said, interrupting me, "I'd rather be out here flying on one wing then bunked just because my ship's a little beat up."

"And if it's all the same to you Duke I'd like to finish this mission with no K.I.A.'s." I said. "So I'll be clear; I'm ordering you to return to the carrier with Chuckles flying escort. If you try anything I will shoot out your engines and _push _you back to the carrier, got it?" Duke groaned and, after a moment, nodded. I watched Duke fly away with Chuckles just behind him before turning my attention back to defending the ship. I kept my eyes peeled but quickly noticed a lack of fighters.

"Where'd they all go?" I asked Vivian. She looked around for a moment before drawing my attention to the enemy carrier off in the distance.  
"Maybe they all fell back to defend their ship?" She asked. I looked and what she said made sense; even from as far away as we were I could see lasers flying off in every direction as fighters tried desperately to keep something from getting to their carrier. Suddenly it all stopped and a loud, desperate shout filled my ears.

"They're firing it! They're firing it! Get out of that gun's sights!" I watched as the massive gun on top of the carrier begun to glow red before, a few seconds later, a bright red bolt of energy shot out of it. It quickly made its way across the space where the fighters had just been before eating its way through what little scrap was in its way and finally passing just over the top of our carrier.

"Everyone okay?" I asked. I got varying answers from the men and women guarding the other ships, but I didn't hear from the two people in my squad I'd sent out that way. "Duke? Chuckles? You guys okay?" I asked. Desperately I shouted into the comms channel, "Damn it guys! Are you all right?" There still wasn't an answer. I felt my body go numb. _No. _Something inside me said. _No, no, no, no._ It kept going. I don't remember much of what happened after that for a while. I remember hearing cheers break in over the comms channel as Major Jackson managed to take down the gun, then the sound of Grimmsley's voice breaking in over the comms channel as we blasted through the last of the junk. With her guns free, our carrier turned its cannons on the enemy carrier. It wasn't long after that that the enemy finally broke off for good and every fighter was recalled to the carrier. I vaguely remember landing, and I must've somehow made my out of my arwing and across the hangar, but the next thing I remember is being on the ground. Vivian rushed over and helped me up before half-carrying me over the nearest wall where she sat me down before sitting next to me. Some point later someone who must've been one of the ship's medics, came over to me and looked me over. He looked over at Vivian and said something. She said something back and the medic looked confused. He looked around for a moment before motioning to someone.

"…They're not K.I.A; they're in the medical bay." He said, as I phased back into reality.

"What?" I asked, suddenly looking up at him.

"Yeah, they came in just after that cannon missed us." He said. "If you don't believe me, go check—"He didn't have to finish his sentence. I hopped to my feet and rushed for the door leading into the rest of the ship.

The medical bay was located close enough to the hangar that wounded pilots could easily be carried to it, while still being far enough away that any accident in the hangar wouldn't affect the medic's ability to fix people up. I ran the short distance between the two but was stopped by the head nurse, René, who was standing just inside the medical bay.

"Hold up," She said, sticking her hand out to stop me. She looked me over before saying, "we're only treating the badly wounded right now and, since you're not burned or in any obvious pain you don't—"

"Lieutenant's King and Starr," I said, cutting her off, "are they in there?" She thought for a moment before ultimately reaching for a data tablet sitting on a desk next to her.

"They're wounds were minor compared to some of the men and women we've received so we sent back to their barracks."

"Thanks." I said, turning away from her. I almost ran into Vivian, who'd been chasing me before and had only just caught up with me. I quickly explained where I was going and she and I ran towards Coyote Unit's barracks.

I came to stop just outside the barracks door. Cautiously, I peeked inside and, sure enough, the barracks were empty except for the Duke and Chuckles, both of whom were lying in their bunks. I stepped into the door, waiting for either one of them to notice me. When they failed to do so, I let out a loud whistle. They both popped up and looked around the room for a moment before finally noticing me.

"I just wanted to make sure your ears still worked." I said, stepping further into the room, trying not to show how glad I was to see them, "You know, since I shouted your names into the comms channel about five times and neither one of you responded." Duke and Chuckles looked at each other before Duke spoke up,

"We couldn't hear a thing." He said. "That cannon fried everything in my cockpit, comms included; that's how I got these," he held his arms up. His shirt had been rolled up and his arms had been bandaged from the elbow down. "You'd be surprised how flammable a flight-suit is when sparks are flying."

"What about you?" I asked, looking at Chuckles. He pointed to his head, which, along with his ears, were also covered in bandages.

"I was flying above Duke." He said. "That shot didn't miss me by much; it drained my shields in half a second and it fried the electronics in my helmet. It uh, wasn't easy getting it off my head. I mean, my fur'll grow back and I guess I'm lucky that that's all that got singed, but, yeah…"

"You guys are damn lucky," I said. I smiled, adding, "I'm just happy to see you in one piece." Duke looked over at Chuckles before asking,

"What? You seriously thought a giant bolt of red plasma would be enough to stop me?" He looked at Vivian who was standing behind me, "Did you?"

"Yup." She said, smiling as she walked to her bunk. "Actually, I was betting on a space mine left over from the base taking you out."

"I had debris." Chuckles said, also smiling.

"So, you both owe me." I said. Duke looked around for a moment, trying to make sense of what was being said,  
"No we don't." Vivian said. "He's still alive, so the bets still on."

You guys were betting on what'd kill me?" He asked.

"Sure were!" Vivian said. "You can't be surprised, I mean, you're betting Chuckle's ship explodes on ignition and you have five to one odds that our beloved Captain gets hit by an asteroid."

"Now wait a minute—"

"This is Brigadier General Grimmsley," Grimmsley's voice said over the ship's intercom. We stopped talking and listened, "our orders have changed. I'm not going to sugar coat this; we lost quite a few good men out there today. Our casualty count stands as follows: Coyote Unit lost two men, both from Alpha Squad, Dingo Unit lost four men, two from their Beta, and one each from their Alpha and Omega Squads, and Jackal Unit lost six men, four of which were from their Beta Unit, and two from their Alpha Unit. On top of that, our arwings've been reduced to shreds; out of the thirty-three we got back, only fifteen of those are in half-decent condition and could fly again. Our engineers are doing what they can to get more of those birds back online but I'm not holding my breath; we don't have the supplies we need to fix them all. As of this moment, our carrier will operate as sole protector of these scientists' ships. Should the need arise we will send out every arwing we have, but not until we absolutely have to. With as short as we are on men, supplies, and arwings we're diverting to Fichina where we'll spend as long as it takes to get everything operational. I will also be calling for the 5th Division's other two units; Timberwolf and Dhole, who will take the places of Jackal Unit and fill in the holes in the rest of our squads." Grimmsley paused for a moment before continuing, "Under any other circumstance, I'd call those of you who deserve medals for your valor and courage up to the bridge or my quarters but I don't have enough medals to give one to each and every one of you. You all did a damn fine job out there and I'll make sure you're all properly rewarded when the time comes. Grimmsley out."


	3. Chapter 3: A Slip in the Ice

Operation: Recovery

Chapter 3:** A Slip in the Ice**

I'm sure I wasn't the only one who was glad for the quiet after Sector X. Nobody else tried to attack the convoy so the pilots were allowed a well deserved break. It wasn't until we arrived in Fichinan Airspace that the pace on the ship picked back up.

Fichina had been nothing more than a giant ball of ice with no interest to anyone except for a few scientists up until recently. Two decent sized spaceports had been established on the planet within the past few years with the primary goal of refueling and repairing Cornarian ships. When soldiers and pilots began complaining about having nothing to do while they're ships were getting fixed the government offered money to anyone who'd be willing to set up businesses in Fichina's spaceports. With the influx of people legitimate houses had to be built. In the end, Fichina got two decent sized cities, and pilots got a few places they could go to get drunk and relax.

As we landed The Savannah, Grimmsley's voice broke in over the intercom again.

"I know all of you were hoping to go out and have a little fun after all you've been through," a collective moan escaped from everyone in my barracks, "…and I'm letting most of you go. Engineers are required to stay until repairs on the arwings are completed, and all medical personnel are required to stay on duty until additional personnel are brought in which, lucky for them, should only take an hour or two. I don't care what you do out there so long as you're back by 0700 tomorrow morning for roll-call. Dismissed."

A split second after Grimmsley's voice had faded the barracks filled with the sound of men and women digging through their trunks for anything to keep them warm, followed shortly after by the thudding of boots. I waited until everything was relatively quiet before I even bothered to get out of my bunk. I looked around and was surprised to find myself standing alone, figuring that at least Vivian would've waited for me.

"Come on!" She shouted, suddenly appearing in the door. "You didn't think you could get out of buying that easily did you?" I quickly grabbed my aviator jacket out of my trunk before running to catch up with her.

We left the Savannah through a door near the front of the port side of her hull. Despite being mid-afternoon it was already dark, and the clouds hanging overhead added to the atmosphere. I stopped a moment and took a deep breath of the cold, crisp air before Vivian, who'd manage to get in front of me again, motioned for me to follow her. Together we made our way to the large fence that designated the landing pad and left the spaceport all together behind as we passed through a nearby gate. We walked down a snowy street to the front of the spaceport. From there we crossed the street we'd been following and slowly made our way into downtown.

With as crowded as everything was I was amazed that Vivian had any idea of where she was going. As we passed by yet another alley, I looked down it and wasn't surprised to find it exactly like the rest of the city: crowded and twisted. After walking for a few more minutes Vivian stopped for a second and looked up at a glowing neon sign hanging above us. I didn't bother; I knew we were standing in front of the Dragon's Den, a local bar and club popular with pilots and the same bar we'd gone to the past few times we'd been on Fichina. Just on the other side of its front door was a small room painted black and lit up with more neon colored lights. Two men armed with more than stun guns stood on either side of the door that led into the club. They stopped us and one of them began to say something when Vivian and I both took our blasters out of our holsters and handed them to the guards who accepted them with a nod. The Dragons Den had gotten into trouble in its opening year when a soldier, angered by the bartender cutting him off, drew his blaster and started shooting. Another patron drew his blaster and tried to stop him. His aim was off though and he accidently shot another patron. At that point a huge fight broke out and it took the Fichinan police to break it up. Fortunately, the only thing seriously injured in the fight was The Dragons Den's reputation which they've been trying to fix since then (hence the serious security).

The guard on our right pressed a button behind him and the door into the club unlocked. As Vivian and I stepped through it we were immediately hit by the bright lights and thumping sound of techno music. We walked around the dance floor and over to the bar. Vivian whistled in an attempt to get the attention of the bartender. She succeeded, and he walked over to us before asking,

"What'll ya have?"

"Solar dive-bombs, and keep 'em coming!" She shouted over the music.

"How about you?" The bartender asked, looking at me. I hesitated a moment, afraid more for my wallet than anything else.

"Come on!" Vivian said, smiling at me. "Have some fun!" I sighed, before looking at the bartender.

"Venom Rushes." I said, smiling.

"Now you're talking!" Vivian said.

I'm not sure how long Vivian and I sat there drinking and just having a good time. At some point I felt someone tap on my shoulder and I turned around to find Duke standing behind me.

"How's your night been?" He asked.

"Not too bad." I said, trying my best to hide how drunk I was.

"Maybe I can make it a little better." He said grinning. I was about to ask him what he meant when he explained. "Come on, Captain. It's been a while since you've seen any action, and since you may or may not have saved my butt out there today, I'm going to help you out."

"That's all right, I'm good." I said.

"Come on!" He said, still grinning. "You're not doubting my ability to pick up chicks are you? If you did, you won't once I tell you this:" He stopped and leaned in close, "Our dear friend Chuckles finally got lucky thanks to yours truly." He whispered. As he stepped back I stared up at him in disbelief.

"No…"

"Yup." He said. "You'd be surprised how sympathetic some women can be to guy whose head's covered in bandages. So, how about it?" Maybe it was the alcohol talking, or maybe it was the fact that I hadn't been in any kind of relationship in a long time, but I agreed.

"Fine." I said. Duke smiled, glad that I'd given in. "Just let me let Vivian…" I turned back towards where, minutes before, my copilot had been sitting drinking. "Hey!" I shouted at the bartender. He came over to me. "Where's the lynx that was just here?" I asked him.

"She said she was feeling sick so I let her slip out the back door to get some fresh air." He said.

"Shouldn't you have gotten her to pay before you let her out?" I asked.

"She said you were paying for everything." The bartender replied.

"Of course she did." I said with a sigh. I dug my credit chip out of my wallet and handed it to the bartender who scanned it in his cash register before handing it back to me. "Duke," I said turning back to him, "I'll be back in five minutes all right? I'm just going to go make sure Vivian isn't passed out in an alley. When I get back…"

"I got it." Duke said. I nodded. I stood up, took one step, and fell. I quickly picked myself back up but no matter how fast I walked I couldn't escape the sound of Duke laughing his ass off.

I made my way to the back of the club and from there outside through the club's back door. I had thought it was going to be hard to find Vivian but thankfully there was a set of fresh tracks that wobbled away down an alley. I followed them as they twisted and turned away from the club and further into the dark alleys of the spaceport. I stopped for a moment as a snowflake landed on my nose and I looked up. I turned my attention back to the tracks but stopped again as I heard someone shouting.

"What do you mean you don't have them?!" I looked around, unsure of where the voice had come from.

"Getting what you want wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be." Someone else said. I took a few steps further before pressing my back up against a wall just outside of another alley.

"Why not?" The first voice asked.

"Security's been tightened." The second voice said. "After what happened there're only a few people with access, and I'm not one of them." I peeked around the corner I was hiding behind and was just able to make out two figures about halfway down the alley. I ducked back as the man on the right looked towards me.

"What?" The first voice asked. A moment passed before the second voice responded.

"I thought I saw something but I guess not."

"You need to get in there and find me those manifests." The first voice said.

"Forget it." The second voice said. "No amount of money is worth the trouble I'd get in if I got caught with it." I heard a few footsteps as the second man walked further down the alley.

"What about for something else then?" The first man asked. The second man stopped.

"Nothing you have is worth losing my job over." The second man said.

"How about the life of your dear wife and your darling little daughter?" The first man asked. There was a long pause before the second man responded.

"What did you say?" He said, obviously shaken.

"Your wife Elizabeth and your daughter Mary," the first man said casually, "would you do it for their lives?"

"You're bluffing." The second man said. "I just talked to them earlier today; they're fine, they're at home, they're—"

"Being watched by some of my friends." The first man said. "The second I give the order, they'll break into your house and your family will be at my mercy."

"You wouldn't."

"I will." The first man said. "That is, unless you can get me the shipping manifest for The Seeker, The Curiosity, and The Discovery." Hearing those three names really got my attention and I risked peeking around the corner again. Little had changed, except now the man doing the threatening had his back to me and the other man was standing in front of him facing him.

"Of course, if you feel that your job isn't worth their lives then I suppose our business is done." The first man said.

"No!" The second man shouted. "I'll do it! Just… Give me a few days!"

"I'll give you six hours to bring me those shipping manifests." The first man said.

"Six…?" The second man said, faltering. "That's not enough time! I'll never be able to do it!"

"You'd better find a way." The first man said, threateningly. "If those manifests aren't dropped off at our ship in six hours my men will break into your house. If you're one hour late, both your daughter and wife's arms will get broken. If you're two hours late, both of their legs will be broken. If you're three hours late I'll tell my men to start cracking ribs and if you're four hours late…"

"I get it! I get it!" The second man said. "I'll find a way just…don't hurt them please." I ducked back behind the corner, my mind racing. Whoever this guy was he was after the shipping manifests from the three ships my unit and her sister units were assigned to guard. Whether it was my own stupidity or the booze helping it along, I decided I needed to try and stop him.

"Hold it right there!" I shouted, stepping out into the middle of the alley. "I don't know who you are, or what exactly you're after but I'm…" The entire time I'd been talking I'd been reaching down slowly to get my blaster. As my hand grasped air I suddenly remembered that I'd left it with the men at the front of the Dragon's Den. "…in serious trouble." I added. The man who was closer to me reached down and grabbed a blaster from his hip. Realizing the seriousness of my situation, I quickly threw myself to the left, managing to dodge his shot. I quickly picked myself up and, without hesitating, I bolted down another alley to my left.

I kept running, knowing that my pursuer was close behind me. I took a left, then a right, then another left, then a right, and I just kept hoping that my luck would hold out and that I'd be able to escape him. My luck has an odd way of biting me in the butt in the worst of times though. Just when I thought I'd managed to get away I turned down an alley that ended in a sold concrete wall. I looked frantically around for a way out but there wasn't one. I heard snow crunch behind me and I quickly turned around, only to be met with a shot from blaster, hitting me dead center of my chest. I crumpled to the ground, fighting to stay conscious.

"Don't worry," my pursuer said, walking over to where I was lying, "you'll be out for a little bit but when you wake up… We'll have a nice long chat…" Using the last of my energy I looked up, managing to get a glimpse of his face. I only had a moment before, to quicken my loss of consciousness, he shot me again. It worked, and the world faded to black.


	4. Chapter 4: Catch, Release, Catch Again

Operation: Recovery

Chapter 4: **Catch, Release, and Catch Again **

I came to in a small, round, metallic room dimly lit by a red light on the wall behind me. I tried to move but found I couldn't. It took me a minute to figure out why; my arms were bound above me, and I was hanging from something on the ceiling by whatever was restraining me. Looking down I saw that my feet were just scraping the floor and seeing my feet made me realize that I'd been stripped of my boots and socks before also noticing that my shirt and jacket were missing as well. I vaguely became aware of someone talking. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on listening to them.

"…just find out what he knows, all right?"

"What if he doesn't want to talk boss? Can we cut him up?"

"No, you can't. Here, just use this. Inject it into his arm or wherever you can get a clean injection. I'll be back in a few hours to see what you've learned."

"What do we do when we've gotten everything we can outta him?"

"Throw him in the cell with the other one. Look, just keep your eye on him and don't rough him up too bad." I heard a door close and opened my eyes. Two big thugs were standing in front of me, one of them was carrying a hypodermic needle and the other had a wooden club.

"I don't suppose you can just let me go, can you?" I asked.

"Look at that!" The thug with the needle said, smiling. "He can still tell jokes!"

"Yeah, but they're not real good jokes are they?" The other thug said, turning to needle-thug.

"How about this Mr. Fox?" Needle-thug said, still smiling. "You tell us everything you overheard in that alley, and we'll think about letting you go?"

"What if I didn't hear anything?" I asked.

"Another joke!" Needle-thug said, laughing.

"Yeah, and it sucked just like the other one." Club-thug said, frowning. "How about this? If he tells another bad joke I get to hit him?"

"The boss said no roughing him up," Needle-thug said, turning to club-thug.

"No he didn't! He said don't beat him up too bad and I don't think breaking his leg's too bad of a beating," Club-thug said, turning to needle-thug.

"All right, we'll do it your way," Needle-thug said with a shrug before he turned back to me. "How about it Mr. Fox? You tell us what we want to hear, or Joshua here gets to beat on you a little." No pilot wants a broken leg, and I'm no exception. Eight times out of ten, it means no flying for a few months while the other two tenths are split between being able to fly in a year and the end of your career. I wasn't about to hand over what I knew though, so I had to try and stall while I hoped a decent plan came to mind.

"How do I know you're not just going to break my legs if I tell you?" I asked.

"Good point," Needle-thug said.

"Not what we wanted to hear though!" Joshua shouted, swinging his wooden club at my right shin as hard as he could. I shouted out as pain shot up my leg. Needle-thug rolled up my pant leg.

"Lucky for you that'll leave a nasty bruise and nothing else," He said, staring up at me. "Now, let's try that again. What did you over hear in the alley?" My mind raced, trying to come up with any way to get myself out of the situation I was stuck in but again nothing came to mind and despite the consequence, I lied.

"I didn't hear anything." I said. Needle-thug rolled his eyes and took a step back, giving Joshua all the space he needed to try and bust my leg. I tensed my legs, hoping it might help lessen the blow. I couldn't help crying out again as his club connected with the same spot as his first swing. This went on for what seemed like hours during which somehow my leg managed to stay in one piece despite Joshua's multiple attempts to snap it in half. My vision swimming from the pain, needle-thug looked me in the eye.

"You know, you're not helping yourself out. The sooner you talk, the sooner we'll stop beating you and the sooner you can go. So, how about it?"

"Forget it, he's not going to talk."

"That's too bad for him. We've got ways to make pilots squeal like stuck pigs." I was only half aware of a pricking sensation in my arm before losing track of everything.

The next thing I remember is being thrown into a cell a lot like the one I'd just been in: small, dimly lit by a red light, and made of metal. I faded in and out of consciousness for some time before snapping wide awake in the middle of the cell on my back. I sat up quickly, looking around the cell.

"Take it easy, you just came off of some pretty nasty stuff." Someone behind me said. I looked behind me and could just make out a woman sitting with her back against the wall.

"How—"I started to ask before the room spun and I had to stop myself from falling down. I took a deep breath before finishing my question, "How long was I out?"

"I'm not sure." The woman said, brushing a piece of her curly, dark red hair, a shade or two darker than the rest of her fur, out of her face. "If I had to take a guess I'd say at least an hour, maybe two." I waited another moment before continuing looking around. I was still missing my shirt, boots and socks and just now noticed my dog tags were still hanging around my neck. I slowly looked around the room before my attention was drawn back to my cell-mate.

"I wouldn't waste your time." She said. "I've gone over this cell inch by inch looking for anything I could use to get out but no good." My gaze slowly drifted down from her face as I noticed her unbuttoned shirt and a bit of black lace sticking out against a patch of white fur that ran from her muzzle down. "Enjoying the view?" She asked. Guiltily I quickly looked away. My cell-mate laughed. "It's all right, guess it's my fault for forgetting to button back up." She quickly did this, before looking curiously at my dog-tags and asking, "Are you in the military?" I nodded.

"Captain Matthew Rayes." I said. "I just go by Matt."

"A captain huh?" She said, raising an eyebrow. "Wow, you outrank me, Lieutenant Christina Eve, but Eve's fine. What division're you from Matt?"

"The 5th." I said.

"That's… Anti-Piracy isn't it?" She asked. I nodded.

"How about you?" I asked.

"The 17th." She said. I couldn't hide my surprise at hearing that. Eve looked at me, obviously confused by my reaction.

"That's Katinan Air Defense." I said. "What're you doing on Fichina?"

"That's a long story." She said, resting her head against the wall. I pushed myself across the floor and sat up next to Eve.

"I think we've got time." I said. She looked at me and smiled again.

"All right, but I warned you." She said.

As it turned out, Eve served with none other than Katina's Bulldog Unit, who, along with the rest of the 17th division, had received some attention from the press for a job well done several years back for defending Katina from Andross (along with the help of Star Fox). Eve, a native of Katina, had joined the C.A.F. shortly after that in hopes of being a pilot for any of the five units in the 17th. She'd gotten lucky and had been serving ever since. Less than a week ago she'd been out patrolling when her squad had come across a frigate that looked like it had crashed. Curious, her squad had flown over it when its guns suddenly sprung to life and opened fire on her squad. She tried her best to get away from the flak but a shot pierced her left wing, then another shot got her engine. Her ship spiraled out of control and crashed into the ground a few feet away from the frigate. She'd lost consciousness the moment her arwing hit the ground, but she half came to sometime later as someone pried the canopy off her ship. At first she'd thought someone from her squad had landed and she was getting rescued but when the glass came off she didn't recognize the person on the other side of her cockpit. He turned around before shouting (at least, Eve thought he was shouting, the crash had knocked out her hearing) and, a moment later, reached into the arwing and pulled her out before slinging her over his shoulder. With what little strength she had she looked around, hoping to see a medical transport or even just another arwing, but there wasn't anything else around other then the frigate and the pile of scrap that was her arwing. It dawned on her as the brute carried her closer and closer to the frigate that the people who'd just shot her down were taking her in. She didn't like that idea so she tried to break free of her captor's grip. With as weak as her punches were, it took the brute carrying her another minute before he even noticed. Using his free hand, her captor waved over another thug. The two of them conversed for a short period of time before the new thug pulled something out of his pocket and took a step closer to Eve. A few seconds later, the world went dark. She'd spent the next two days strapped to a medical gurney as her captors fixed her up before finally they threw her in this cell.

"…The weird thing is, they've fed me decently enough and they let me shower and everything you'd expect not to be able to do when you're a prisoner. There's got to be more to what's going on here, but I just can't figure it out," she finished.

Nothing seemed to be adding up: you had a group of bandits interested in the contents of a group of ships that'd been digging up stuff from Titania, a group who obviously didn't want anyone to know what they were doing but at the same time weren't killing the people who'd gotten too close to possibly find out anything. After sitting in silence for a few minutes I decided I wasn't going to get anything done by sitting around, waiting for the leader of the thugs to come back, so I stood up and started looking around the cell. Eve watched me for a moment before saying, with a shake of her head,

"You're wasting your time. I told you, there's no way out, I've looked." I ignored her and continued my search. Finding nothing of any help on the walls or the floor I looked up and was surprised to see a circular grate leading into an air vent in the middle of the room. I wasn't tall enough to reach it by myself, but it gave me an idea.

"How about this," I said, turning to Eve, "if I can get us out of here, you let me buy you a drink or two?"

"If you can get us out of here, I'll buy." She said, standing up. "Not that it matters, but how are we escaping?" I couldn't hide my grin as I pointed up to the air vent.

"If you climb on my shoulders and pry it loose we can crawl up into it and out of this cell. I'm guessing the guys who run this ship don't keep every door locked so, so long as we can get out of this room, we can make our way out into the rest of the ship and from there outside." Eve looked from me to the grate before turning back to me.

"Alright, if we make it out of here it's a date," She said.

I squatted down to let Eve climb on my back before standing up under the vent. After a minute of tugging on the grate, Eve stopped.

"It's no good. It's bolted in there," she said, shaking her head.

"Hang on," I said.

"Why?" she said.

"No, I literally mean, hang on," I said. Eve nodded, sticking her hands up through the slits in the vent and hanging on. I kneeled, leaving her to hang on. We waited a minute, hoping the vent would give way under Eve's weight but nothing happened. Eve growled, obviously annoyed by being so close to freedom but being stopped by a simple piece of metal. She brought her legs up into her chest before shaking and bouncing. Odd as the sight may have been, it did the trick, and Eve, along with the metal grate, came crashing to the floor. Eve slowly stood back up, groaning and rubbing her back.

"You okay?" I asked her.

"I'll be fine," she said. "Let's just hurry up and get out of here." I nodded.

"You're going to have to let me stand on your shoulders this time," I said.

"Why?" She asked.

"It'd be a lot easier for me to lift you up into there than for you to lift me up," I said. Eve thought about it for a moment before, with a nod, she bent down and let me stand on her shoulders. I told Eve to stop as my hands reached the edge of the vent, and I quickly climbed up. I turned around before lowering my arms down to Eve. She had to jump, but she managed to grab them and I pulled her up into the vent.

"Thanks," she said. I nodded before I turned around and began to crawl as quietly as I could through the cold, dark, cramped space that was our means of escape.

It's extremely difficult to be quiet when every move you make causes a loud, jarring, boom. So, after a few moments of trying to move silently I decided it might be better if I just moved quickly. Less than a minute later I received a shock as I went to put my hand out and it passed through the air where more vent should have been. I gasped and backpedaled a few steps, almost backing right into Eve.

"What is it?" she asked. I ignored her for a moment, slowly moving forward before, once again, the vent ended. I stuck my head out into the space, staring down. Below me, I could just see another circular grate leading down into another room with the same dim red light as in the previous room.

"Bingo," I said, swinging my legs out from behind me. Sitting on the edge of the vent, I kicked down as hard as I could on the grate. After just a few kicks it fell away and I slid down after it.

The room I landed in wasn't at all what I'd been expecting. I'd thought the cell we'd been in would be linked to another cell by the vents. It was actually linked to a barracks, roughly the same size as the ones on board the Savannah, but with only half as many beds. In the extra space between the beds large metal lockers were set up and it was to one of these that I walked over to and began rummaging through. I turned around for a moment as Eve landed.

"Do we really have time to go digging through their stuff?" she asked, standing up.

"I just need a minute," I said, moving to a different locker.

"What are you looking for?" she asked, a little irritated. Pointing down to my bare feet I said,

"We won't be able to go very far out in the snow if I don't have something on my feet." Eve continued to stare at me and I added, "A shirt'd be nice too." I only half saw Eve roll her eyes before asking,

"What size are you looking for?"

With Eve's help I quickly found a pair of boots (as well as a shirt) and we were ready to make our escape. We made our way across the barracks and to the door which I quickly opened. Cautiously, I poked my head out of the door and, not seeing anyone, stepped out into the hall and waved for Eve to follow me. I wasn't at all surprised to find the hall lit by the same dim red lights I'd seen in every other room in the ship, but something did surprise me. Scattered throughout the hall were metallic crates half as tall as I was. I ducked behind one for a moment and was even further surprised by a label on each of the boxes: "non-perishables".

"Why would they leave this stuff lying out in the middle of a hall?" I thought out loud.

"Does it really matter?" Eve asked. I shrugged, adding the boxes to my increasing list of unanswered questions about the ship and its crew. Eve and I made our way to the end of hall and up a staircase to a passage that split to the left and to the right.

"Which way should we go?" I asked.

"Right," Eve said, pointing to signs on the wall across from us. Sure enough, a sign with "access port" pointed right. We continued down the hall before we came to a staircase that went down, then another split. We turned right again following another sign on the wall and passed in front of the ship's infirmary. I turned around as the door began to slide open. I quickly looked at Eve and her panicked expression told me she was thinking the same thing: run. Not bothering to be quiet, we bolted for the end of the hall before diving around the corner. Standing with my back flattened against the wall, I couldn't resist the urge to peek around the corner to see if whoever was coming out of the infirmary was following us. I watched as a woman in a white lab coat stepped into the hall and looked from her left to her right before, with a yawn, she started walking in the opposite direction of where Eve and I were hiding. I waited until she was completely out of sight before I took up my position in front of Eve and we continued sneaking through the ship.

Eve and I stuck to the right side of the hall as we made our way up another two flights of stairs, down a hall, and back down two flights of stairs before turning right into a short hallway that ended with an open door leading outside. Neither Eve nor I cared if anyone could hear us, so we ran to the door and stepped out into the free air.

I had to shield my eyes, even in the dull gray of the early morning. A gust of cold air hit me, carrying flurries with it, and I suddenly wished I'd tried to find a thicker shirt. I glanced over at Eve and couldn't help but smile. She had her eyes closed (maybe because she was seeing real sunlight for the first time in a week), her ears were down, and had her arms stretched above her head. Her smile said it all though; I don't think I've ever seen anyone so happy just to be outside. I quickly looked around and was only slightly surprised to find that the ship we'd been captive in was docked in the same area as The Savannah.

"Hey Eve," I said, turning back to her.

"Hm?" She said, turning and looking at me. For the first time I got a good look at her and I was at a loss for words. Between her beautiful smile and her brilliant hazel eyes she was the most attractive woman I'd ever seen and I knew I was head over heels in love. I suddenly wanted to tell her how I felt, but something felt wrong; something kept nagging at the back of my mind. I looked up from her light brown eyes and saw someone standing a few feet behind her, a blaster drawn and suddenly, time slowed down. It wasn't the thought that Eve was about to get shot and I would probably get shot immediately after that stopped everything, it was something much stronger; standing behind Eve, blaster drawn, an expression that could kill was none other than Major Jackson, commander of my unit and the last person I'd expected to see. It was this, the thought that the guy who'd stuck his nose up Brigadier General Grimmsley's ass on more than one occasion and had personally saved all of our lives within the past week that delivered an unbelievably strong shock to my system. I watched as he pulled the trigger and, with time still at a near standstill, I pushed Eve out of the way. I watched as she looked at me, utterly horrified by my seemingly random act of violence before turning my attention to trying to get out of the way of the oncoming supercharged bolt of plasma. With nothing better coming to mind then "throw yourself to the ground" I tried to do just that. Even with time moving as slow as it was though I couldn't dodge the blast completely and it hit me in the left arm, just above my elbow. Jackson's expression changed from one of murderous intent to one of anger. What seemed like half an hour later, I finally hit the ground, and time sped back up. I tried to lift my left arm, but every nerve in it felt dead so I half sat up and got a good look at it. There was a gaping hole in my jacket, and smoke rose from my charred fur. I couldn't tell whether or not the shot had gone deep enough to cause any major damage but as Major Jackson came marching over to me, I suddenly didn't care.

"You just couldn't stay in your cell could you, Matt?" he said to me, stepping on my chest. "I was going to let you out right after roll call but no, you had to try and play hero. I can't just let you go now Matt, you know too much for sure. Even if you didn't see me last night, this," he said, spreading his arms," this is too much!"  
"Matt!" Eve shouted, sitting up. Jackson pointed his blaster at her, and she stopped moving.

"…and then there's her," he said. "I hope you're happy Matt, she had it pretty nice in there. A shower whenever she wanted it, food three times a day, a bathroom but now, she's going to lose all of that." He flipped a switched on his blaster before, without even hesitating a moment, he fired twice, hitting Eve in the chest with both shots. She fell over and I could see her face, frozen in a mixture of confusion and terror.

"Eve!" I shouted, trying to get up, only to have Jackson stomp on my chest.

"Don't worry, she'll be fine," Jackson said, half-smiling. "At least, she'll be alive. That counts for something doesn't it? You, on the other hand, are about to get a tour of my lovely little ship. I'm guessing you've seen most of it already, but now you'll get to see the one room only a few lucky people have had a chance to see." I cast a glance over at Eve. "Don't worry about her," Jackson said, drawing my attention back, "I'll send someone out to pick her up. Now! If you'd be so kind as to get up, we can begin the tour!"


	5. Chapter 5: A Test Subject

Operation: Recovery

Chapter 5: A **Test Subject**

Jackson led me back into the ship, holding me at gun point and always walking just far enough behind me so I couldn't try to grab the gun out of his hand.

"You like the lights?" he said, gesturing to the dim, red atmosphere. "They're not supposed to be on, but our power's been on the fritz for a while now so we're diverting all power to essentials only." I ignored him, unsure of whether he was taunting me or just trying to have a legitimate conversation. "Did you notice the lack of men on board the ship while you were making your escape?" he asked. I nodded. "You see the funny thing about criminals is they're people too. They need a day just to kick back, relax, and get drunk. You know, just like you or me. So I had the captain of this ship give everyone the day off. Well, almost everyone. I of course had to leave some of the medical personnel on board. Then there're a few guards I left here who were suppose to be keeping an eye on you and of course the engineering staff."

"You mean you're not the captain of this ship?" I asked. Jackson looked at me, dumbfounded by what seemed to him to be an extremely stupid question.

"Now how could I be the captain when I'm on board the Savannah all the time?" he asked, shaking his head. "I handle the important things. The captain keeps the men in order and keeps the ship running."  
"Right, you handle the important stuff," I said, rolling my eyes.

"I'll explain when we get where we're going," he said, smiling. "Until then, you'll just have to believe me."

"Where exactly are we going?" I asked.

"The hold," Jackson said.

"Why?" I asked.

"I told you, in due time Matt, but not until then!" he said. The way he talked bugged me, like someone who had some huge secret and was just looking for an excuse to share it with anyone.

"You won't get away with kidnapping me," I said, trying to stall while I thought of an escape plan. "Someone from the Savannah'll realize I'm gone and they'll—"

"Oh, everyone on board knows you're AWOL," he said, his smile getting even broader. "When you didn't show up for roll-call this morning everyone assumed you were passed out in an alley somewhere. I volunteered to go looking for you, much to the admiration of Brigadier General Grimmsley. You're squad's out looking for you too but they won't find you, at least, not where they're looking." The conversation hit a lull and as we passed by the crates in the hall I had to ask,

"Why are those crates out here?" I asked.

"Because the hold's full," Jackson said. I was about to ask what of, but realized I'd just get an evasive answer, just like every other time the hold had come up. We stopped further down the hall at a three way intersection as the sounds of boots stomping across metal reached our ears. From a path to our right came the two thugs who'd interrogated me earlier.

"Boss!" Joshua shouted coming to a stop. "They've escaped! We left 'em alone for an hour and they—"He stopped as he noticed me. "You got one of them!" Joshua shouted. Jackson rolled his eyes.

"So I did," he said. "The other one's out cold outside in front of the ship. Joshua, you go grab her and throw back in the cell. Don't give her any food or water or even let her go to the bathroom when she comes to, got it? Derrick, come with me. I'm going to need your help in the hold."

"Got it boss," Joshua said, running off in the direction we'd just come from. Derrick silently joined our procession as we hung a left through the intersection.

The conversation died from that point on. I don't know whether it was because of Jackson's silent giddiness or if he just didn't feel like bragging anymore. Either way, he didn't say anything until we were standing in front of a big iron door with a manual opening mechanism and even then all Jackson said was,

"Derrick get the door." His minion nodded a few times before walking past me and spinning a wheel on the front of the door. There was a loud clang as the lock came undone and Derrick pulled the door open. Jackson nudged me with the barrel of his blaster and I stepped past the lackey holding the door open and into the hold, a large open room with crates lining the wall. I couldn't see anything else though; this room lacked even the dim red lights that the rest of the ship had. As Jackson stepped through the door he flipped a switch on the wall and suddenly a bright white light came on in the center of the room, illuminating a chair sitting across from something extremely odd. Whatever it was it was definitely a machine, I could tell that from its metallic exterior and all the gears and things like that covering it. In the middle of it, directly across from the chair was a television screen and, attached to both sides and the top of the screen, were three things that looked like desk lamps.

"Go on then Matt," Jackson said, smiling, "have a seat."

"Do I have any other choices?" I asked. "Couldn't I just stand?"

"What's wrong?" Jackson asked. "You're not afraid of a little old chair are you?"

"As rusty and uncomfortable as that one looks?" I asked. "Yeah, a little."

"Sorry, it was the best we could do," Jackson said. I sighed. No escape plans had come to me but I didn't think I was beaten yet so I sat down. Jackson flipped another switch on the wall and restraints shot out of the chair restraining my wrists, ankles and my forehead. I tried to struggle for a minute and Jackson, laughing, walked over and stood in front of me. He lowered his face so that his nose was less than an inch in front of mine.

"Now isn't that comfortable?" He asked. I didn't bother to answer him. "I suppose I can answer your questions now. But first a story! Do you know how Andross got so many people to blindly follow his every order? You'd think a few bribes, a show of force, or a combination of both would be enough to get a whole army of mercenaries on your side but you'd be wrong." Jackson walked over to the machine and patted it, almost affectionately. "Before Andross was even considered a threat, back when he was just a scientist, he had been working on memory manipulation. He claimed that he could erase bad memories that a person had, leaving them with a better, more enjoyable life. The government, thinking this sounded like a wholesome, decent project, funded it. What Andross had in mind, however, was much different from what he claimed. He _did _manage to develop a machine with the ability to scan a person's brain and copy their memories, more or less. This machine could then be used to erase certain memories from a person's mind. What the government didn't know was that Andross had secretly developed a technique for making false memories and implanting them into a person's mind so they would think whatever he wanted them to by forcing the electrical impulses in someone's brain to fire differently. With this ability Andross erased the minds of several of Corneria's leading scientists and some of its greatest strategic minds, replacing their memories of allegiance to Cornaria with memories of allegiance to him. Once he had the backing of Corneria's finest scientists, it was a simple matter to duplicate the machine and use it to enslave the minds of hundreds of soldiers who became loyal to him, and only him. This machine is _part _of that device and, to my knowledge, is one of the few existing ones in the Lylat System. A few months back, a group of scientists on Titania unearthed it and realized immediately what it was. So they shipped it back to Corneria to be studied. When I heard about this through a friend who was on the dig team, you met him, he was the one I was talking to in the back alley before you interrupted me, I began to think of all the things I could do with it. The only problem was, how could I get it out of a secure military instillation? The answer: I would pay someone to do it. It wasn't easy, but after a week of searching I finally found a group who would do the job. It cost me quite a bit and, between the thieves and hiring a group of bandits to guard it, I spent every credit I had. It was worth it though and—"

"Wait," I said, interrupting him. "Why haven't I heard about this thing getting stolen if it was so important? Wouldn't the government have put out every person they could to try and track it down?" Jackson looked at me with the same expression of arrogance he had earlier. "Of course not!" He said. "If a top-secret device was stolen from one of the most secure locations the government wouldn't dare say anything about it! Imagine the scandal! 'Mind-control device loose in the Lylat System' the headlines would read. Instead, the government discretely deployed its anti-piracy division to patrol around Titania. With raids on ships being common enough in the area, the move wouldn't attract any attention. Now that's where things start to get complicated. When I heard from my friend that they'd unearthed what looked like the second part of the device I had to act fast. I sent an encoded message out, saying that we'd found something really valuable on Titania and were going to be transferring it through Sector X. I knew someone would be listening, including the bandits I'd hired. They knew Sector X would be the perfect place to strike."

"You failed pretty hard at that," I said. "I bet they were pretty pissed when we shot most of their fighters out of the sky at Sector X, not to mention the damage you did on their ship." Jackson shook his head before looking at me with something that must've been pity.

"Those weren't my men," he said. "I knew the information would draw a few othergroups of bandits to our ships. My hope was that they would bust us up pretty bad, leaving the convoy easy pickings for my group. Unfortunately, things never turn out the way they're supposed to, do they? Only one group took the bait leaving the Savannah still more then able to defend herself. On top of that, a huge snowstorm here on Fichina grounded all out-going ships including this one meaning they couldn't move to catch us as we left Sector X."

"If you were planning on taking all three ships why did you need to know which one had the device on it?" I asked. "That's why you were after the manifests weren't it?"

"Because, if it comes to blowing up half the convoy to get what I want I'd like to know which ship to spare," Jackson said. "As you can see though, things aren't exactly going according to plan on that front either. My friend's being less then helpful. But! I have hope that I'll find some way to pull this off." The room grew quiet as Jackson finished telling me about his plan, and a nasty thought occurred to me. I was stuck, in front of a device designed to manipulate memories. There could only be one reason why Jackson would bother telling me all this.

"You're going to test this thing out on me, aren't you?" I asked.

"That's the plan," Jackson said. "Of course, without the second part of the machine the best I can hope for is that it erases a huge chunk of your memory for good. You might be left a potato for the rest of your life, but then again it's your fault for sticking your nose somewhere where it didn't belong. Derrick!"

"Yeah boss?" Derrick responded.

"If you'd be so kind as to shut the door on your way in…"Jackson said. Derrick nodded, closing and locking the door as he entered. "…now come over here and help me turn this thing on. I need someone to hit a button on the opposite side of where I am at the same time I throw this lever." Jackson said as he moved over to the right side of the machine.

"Hey boss, what if this thing don't work right?" Derrick asked, moving to the opposite side of the machine.

"Then our friend there'll get a nasty headache," Jackson said, rolling his eyes again. "I don't know what'll happen! Are you ready?" He asked, glaring at his minion who nodded the affirmative.

"It's been nice knowing you Matt! With any luck you won't remember me, or your squad, or even your own name," Jackson said, flipping the switch. Derrick pressed a button and the machine began to whirr before it suddenly sprung to life.


	6. Chapter 6: The Morning After

Operation: Recovery

Chapter 6: **The Morning After, and the Morning After That**

I'm not going to describe what happened next. It's not that I don't want to, or that I'm afraid I'll scare someone by describing what I felt, I honestly don't remember. I've tried to remember any of what happened next, but I can't. I guess it'll be a few hours of my life I'll never get back. The next thing I do remember is waking up in a gurney on board the Savannah. I began freaking out but, who can blame me? I didn't know where I was and I had wires and tubes in my arms and down my throat. A nurse rushed over to me as I tried to pull the tubes in my throat out and tried to stop me. I shoved her away and ultimately she had to resort to giving me a sedative via injection into one of the tubes running into my arm. I quickly lost the will to fight, and fell asleep.

As the drugs wore off I woke up again and immediately tried to rip the tube out of my throat again. René, the head nurse, ran up to me and rather than stick me with a needle shouted,

"Stop trying to yank it out all you'll do is hurt yourself!" I stopped, staring at her curiously. "Are you sure you want that thing out?" She asked. I continued to look at her curiously before nodding. "Sorry, stupid question. Just stay still or I might rip out a chunk of your esophagus with it." I did as she told me to, and resisted the urge to cough as that tube came slithering out.

"Alright, it's out." She said, putting the thing on a tray next to my gurney. I took a deep breath before succumbing to a coughing fit that lasted for several minutes. The nurse disappeared for a minute before returning with a small cup filled with water. She handed it to me and I drank it graciously before continuing to cough for another minute.

"Where am I?" I finally asked.

"You're in the medical bay on board the Savannah," She said. I coughed again and took a moment to look around the medical bay. I was at the back, in an area closed off from the rest the bay by a white curtain. As I began looking myself over I couldn't help but notice that, once again, I was missing my shirt and my boots and was now only wearing my slacks once again. Wires monitoring my vitals were hooked into my left forearm. A dull, burning sensation drew my attention to my left arm which was bandaged around the elbow.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Not sure," She said. "From what we can tell you were nicked by a blaster at close range. Good thing it only nicked you though. If that shot had hit you dead on you wouldn't have a left arm anymore. With any luck you'll be flying again in a week or two."

"Flying?" I asked. René looked at me, just a little confused.

"Yeah, flying." She said. "You're a pilot aren't you?"

"I don't know." I said, casually. Then it hit me: I didn't know. Trying to keep my cool I asked the nurse, "who am I?" She looked at me, stunned and I couldn't hold my emotions back any longer. "Who am I?!" I shouted, angry and confused.

"Captain Matthew Rayes." She said quietly. I looked at her, mouth half open. The name didn't mean anything to me; it wasn't familiar, it wasn't what your own name should be.

"Are you sure?" I asked her. She nodded.

"Positive." She said.

"Why don't I remember it then?!" I shouted. "I should remember my name but I can't! I'm trying but…" I placed my head in my palms before I started shaking my head back in forth. I looked up for a second as the curtain drew back and Brigadier General Grimmsley suddenly appeared beside the nurse. He noticed me and looked at the nurse, slightly confused.

"He's awake," he said, looking back and forth between her and me, "but something's not right, is it Nurse René?"

"I'm afraid your right sir." The nurse said. She leaned in closer to Grimmsley and whispered something in his ear.

"You're absolutely sure about that?" He asked her.

"He doesn't remember being a pilot, or his own name sir." René said.

"What else doesn't he remember?" Grimmsley asked.

"I'm not sure yet," René said. "The only way we'll be able to find out is by asking him."

"Do it." Grimmsley said. Nurse René shook her head.

"Sir, that could take us a few days and—"

"I don't want to hear it nurse." Grimmsley said, cutting her off." If you mean to tell me you can't fit in an interview with the increased medical staff I've given you, you're not doing your job right. I want a thorough report on his condition in the next forty-eight hours, got it? I don't care if you have to take shifts asking questions, get it done." He turned to leave and I tried to stop him.

"Wait!" I shouted. He stopped and turned around. "What happened to me?" I asked.

"That's what we were hoping you could tell us." Grimmsley said.

"I don't know." I said. "I can't remember what happened." I looked desperately from the nurse to Grimmsley. "Don't you have any idea?"

"Just hunches." René said, sadly. "You were brought in yesterday by your commanding officer, Major Jackson. He said he found you unconscious in an alley stripped down to nothing but your slacks and your dog-tag. If I had to take a guess I'd say you were attacked on your way back from the bar two nights ago. You were probably intoxicated, but you still managed to fight back. Your attacker shot at you, no doubt trying to kill you, but you managed to avoid most of the damage. After that point, it's anyone's guess. Head trauma would explain the memory loss, but it doesn't explain why your right leg is bruised beyond recognition. In any case, you must've lost consciousness at some point, then your attacker stole your jacket, shirt, credit chip and, for whatever reason, your socks and boots."

"This doesn't add up." Grimmsley muttered.

"There is one other thing, sir." René said. "If what Major Jackson said is true, then Captain Rayes was lying out in the snow for, at the very least, five or six hours with no shirt, no jacket, no boots…"

"…and?" Grimmsley asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You think he'd be frost bitten in at least one place on his body." René said, explaining. "But I've checked and there isn't a single sign of it on him."

"Maybe you missed it." Grimmsley said. I could see the nurse wanted to defend herself, but that would mean talking back to Grimmsley. She sighed before saying,

"Yes sir, I suppose I might have." Grimmsley nodded before he left. She left my corner of the medical bay for a moment before returning with a chair. She set it next to my gurney before sitting down in it. "If it's alright with you Captain, I'd like to ask you some questions."

"If it'll help, sure." I said. René nodded.

"This will help us determine how far back your memory's lost and should help give us a starting point for treatment." She said, flipping a digital page on her tablet. "I'll do my best to keep track of what you can and can't remember. If you feel tired or just get sick of answering questions, let me know and we can take a break for a little bit. Now then…"

Over the next ten hours Nurse René asked me a seemingly endless series of questions covering my military career. It didn't take very long for an odd thing to happen. We quickly found that I couldn't remember much of my recent past, but I could recall random scraps of memory from events a few months ago and back. A perfect example: I could remember flying past Lieutenant Jenkins's crash-site on Macbeth, but nothing immediately before or after that. I'll never forget how confused she looked when I told her. The interview grew suddenly quiet as she sat there, trying to piece together how my memory could be fragmented. It took another nurse bursting into my area to get René's help with a patient who'd suddenly gone into critical condition to snap Nurse René out of it. The interview continued until around eight at night at which point my mind suddenly gave out, and I fell asleep in the middle of a question.

The next thing I remember is waking up early the next morning after having some really wild dreams involving people with no faces, bumping into me as I walked down a dark alley in the port.

"Thanks for doing this René." I heard someone say before my eyes could focus.

"You owe me, Charles." Nurse René said. "The only person outside of the medical staff who's supposed to be allowed to see Captain Rayes is Grimmsley."

"I know." I heard the first voice say. "I'll figure something out."

"I have an idea." René said. My eyes finally focused and what I saw would've shocked me if I'd had any memory of my squad what so ever. Standing to the left of my gurney was Vivian, trying her hardest not to grin as she stared at Chuckles. Standing next to her and in front of my gurney was Duke who was staring at Chuckles on his left who had René's arms around his neck and her muzzle pressed up against his. After a moment René pulled her muzzle away from his and said, with a smile,

"That's a start." She removed her arms and left, still smiling. Chuckles couldn't hide his smile either but it faded as he noticed the looks he was getting from Duke and Vivian.

"What?" He asked, shrugging.

"I just can't believe you hooked up with, well, anybody." Vivian said.

"Thanks to yours truly." Duke said, bowing slightly.

"Bull." Chuckles said. "'You should totally go buy her a drink'. I could've thought of that!"

"Then why didn't you?" Duke asked, grinning.

"I was going to!" Chuckles said. "I just needed a minute to collect my thoughts."

"You know, with as many times as you've been in here, I'm surprised you two didn't get together sooner." Vivian said. "I mean, she's already seen you naked hasn't she? And anyone who's not frightened away by that…"

"I'm sorry," I said, drawing everyone's attention away from Chuckle's love-life, "but who are you?"

"You seriously don't remember us do you?" Duke asked. My blank expression must've answered his question. "We're your squad!" I looked at him, still confused.

"My squad?" I echoed.

"Yeah." Duke said. "We're the Cornarian Armed Force's 5th division's Coyote Unit's Omega Squad. You gotta remember us right?" I shook my head. "Wow, that's rough."

"Duke, he doesn't even remember his own name." Chuckles said. "I doubt he remembers anyone, let alone us."

"Hey!" Duke shouted, glaring at Chuckles. "With as many times as we've saved his sorry ass and he's saved ours, I figured…" Duke sighed. "…I figured there was at least a chance." I looked from Vivian to Duke to Chuckles. They all looked pretty bummed and I felt that it was my fault.

"I'm sure I'll remember everything soon." I said, trying to smile. "I just need a few days to rest, and then I'll be back where I belong and everything'll be back to the way it was." My words seemed to be enough to cheer Duke and Chuckles up, but not Vivian. Something was definitely bugging her but before I had a chance to ask her what, Nurse René reappeared.

"Sorry, but you guys are going to have to leave." She said, poking her head in through the curtain. "Grimmsly'll be here any minute and if he catches you, it'll be my head." She removed her head and I watched my squad leave. Vivian lingered a moment before turning to me and saying,

"Get better soon, Captain." A few minutes later Grimmsley walked through the curtain separating me from the rest of the medical bay.

"Has he made any progress?" Grimmsley asked Nurse René as she appeared behind him.

"No sir." She said, sighing. "That is, he hasn't remembered anything new." She quickly told Grimmsley about what she'd found out and Grimmsley looked at her, eyebrow raised in disbelief.

"Nurse, I'd swear you were bullshitting me if the events surrounding Captain Rayes weren't already so strange." Grimmsley said. "If it's alright with you, I'd like to sit in for a little bit."

"No sir, that won't be a problem at all." She said. She left for a moment and returned with another chair for Grimmsley which she set at the end of the gurney. She resumed her seat next to me, flipped her digital tablet to a fresh page, and continued the interview.

"Now as I was trying to ask you before you passed out last night," she began, "do you remember anything about the day you signed up to join the C.A.F? Maybe your recruiters' name, or rank, or…?" I sat there and thought about it for a moment and something did come to mind.

"He was huge." I said. Grimmsley gave me a curious look, but I ignored him. "I remember him being over six feet tall and having some the largest muscles I'd ever seen. More than that though, what I really remember was that he was one mean looking bulldog." Nurse René flipped through the pages of digital tablet, looking for a picture of my recruiting officer. She turned to say something to Grimmsley but I didn't hear a word of it. The word "bulldog" had set off some sort of chain reaction in my brain. It felt like electricity was running from one part of my brain to another, charging it and somehow making it accessible to me again.

"Bulldog!" I shouted suddenly.

"Yes Captain, we got that part." Grimmsley said.

"No!" I said shaking my head. "Bulldog unit!" Grimmsley once again raised one of his eyebrows and I tried to explain. "I remembered something! I met a wolf, she'd been serving in Katina's Bulldog Unit! Her name was…"

"What's your point Captain?" Grimmsley asked. I looked at him.

"What?" I asked.

"It's great that you remembered anything I suppose." Grimmsley said. "But does it have anything to do with what happened to you a few nights ago? Was she the one who attacked you?"

"I…I don't remember." I said. "All I remember is that she served, was serving, with Katinan Air Defense. I think it had something to do with a few nights ago, but…"

"Was she the one that attacked you, Captain?" Grimmsley asked.

"I don't remember." I said, shaking my head.

"Is it possible that you're remembering something from a few years back?" He asked.

"I guess." I said, uncertain.

"I think it's more than possible." Grimmsley said.

"It is a little strange isn't it sir?" Nurse René said. "What would someone on active duty be doing on Fichina?"

"Visiting a relative, vacationing, running from their Unit," Grimmsley said, counting the things off on his fingers.

"If they are missing in action, shouldn't you report it?" Nurse René asked.

"What do you want me to do about it Nurse?" Grimmsley asked. "Call up the man in charge of the 17th division and ask him if he's got any pilots AWOL?"

"That'd be a reasonable thing to do wouldn't it sir?" Nurse René asked. Grimmsley sighed, shook his head, and then stood up.

"Since we're stuck here until the rest of the 5th Division shows up and I've got some time to kill…" Grimmsley said, stopping and thinking, "…I'll see about looking into it. In return, I want this interview finished today though." Grimmsley said, leaving. Nurse René had been watching him and turned to me after he left.

"Despite what Brigadier General Grimmsley might think, it's great that you remembered anything." She said, smiling. "Who knows? Maybe you'll remember something else before we're done today."


	7. Chapter 7: News From Katina

Operation: Recovery

Chapter 7: **News From Katina**

Despite her hopes, I didn't remember anything else (at least, nothing else that felt like that memory had) by the time the interview was over around five that afternoon. Right as we were finishing up, Grimmsley reappeared and sat at the foot of my gurney.

"I just got off of a conference call with Major Grey, the acting commander of the 17th Division and he had some interesting things to say." Grimmsley said. "After exchanging pleasantries for far too long we finally got to business and I asked him if he was missing any pilots. He said no, no pilots M.I.A." Grimmsley paused a moment, waiting to see if either Nurse René or I would say anything. "When I asked him if he had any wolves in any of his units, he again said no; no wolves in any of the units." Again Grimmsley paused. "When I asked him if he'd had any female pilots in Bulldog Unit he said he had one, but she's not a wolf, she's a rabbit. Seeing as how it's more than possible that Captain Rayes remembered something from a few months or even further back I asked him if he'd had any female wolves serving in Bulldog unit in recent history. He had, up until about a week ago. Her squad, Bulldog-Alpha, was attacked by some sort of enemy ship that'd crashed on Katina. Details are sketchy, but all that's known for sure is that one pilot was shot down by cannon fire as the squad attempted to perform evasive maneuvers and retreat. The rest of the squad returned to base where they gathered additional air support and ground support for an assault on the downed ship. When the force arrived at the sight however, the ship was gone and all that was left of the downed arwing was debris from the presumed explosion that followed shortly after its impact with the ground. This," Grimmsley said, pulling a small data tablet from his jacket and handing it to me, "is Lieutenant Christina Eve, late pilot to Katina's Bulldog Unit." I flipped through the digital pages of the tablet, skipping through Eve's personnel records to find a picture.

"It's her!" I shouted, stopping on a picture of Eve in her pilot suit. "That's the wolf I—"

"Ran into some time ago, Captain." Grimmsley said, finishing my sentence for me. "Facts are facts; there's no way you could've met her three days ago." I looked at Grimmsley, obviously confused. In a frantic search for some proof of her existence three days ago, I flipped through the digital pages before I stopped on one of Eve kneeling down in front of her arwing with her helmet tucked under her arm and a smile on her face. That smile, the same sort of soft, beautiful smile that she'd had as she stood out in the open air, made me remember more.

"No." I said, shaking my head. "She's not dead." Grimmsley sighed.

"Look Captain, I'm sorry if you and her had—"

"She's not dead because I remember seeing her a few days ago." I said, shaking my head again. "We were standing out in the early morning light on Fichina and she was smiling, just like she was in this picture." I handed the data pad back to Grimmsley who proceeded to stand up.

"Then your memory's faulty Captain." Grimmsley said. "I'm sorry if you and her had something but face the facts: Her arwing blew up and she's gone." He turned to Nurse René. "If you're done with that report Nurse I'll take it now and save you a trip later."

"Of course sir." She said, handing him the data tablet she'd been writing in for the past day. Grimmsley put this in his jacket before turning back to me.

"Get some rest Captain; you've had a long day." He said. He left me sitting there, very confused and unsure of much of anything anymore. Nurse René quietly got up and left and I probably would've fallen asleep if one last visitor hadn't shown up.

"I'm glad to see you up." Major Jackson said, stepping past the white curtain. I reacted the exact same way to him as I had to everyone else that day; a confused look and a tilt of my head. He smiled as he struck his forehead with the palm of his hand. "I'm sorry; I'd heard you'd lost your memory but thought everyone was just pulling my leg. I'm your commanding officer, Major Jackson."

"You're the guy who found me lying unconscious in an alley and dragged me back here." I said, remembering what Nurse René had said the day before. He nodded before sitting down in the chair next to my gurney.

"You heard about that huh?" He said. "I was just glad I found you before you got seriously frostbitten. You were, are, a darn good pilot and I'd hate to see anything happen to you."

"I guess I owe you." I said, smiling.

"Don't worry about it." He said, dismissively. "I'm sure you'll save my butt sometime in the near future anyway." There was an awkward pause for a moment before Jackson asked, "So, you remembered anything yet?" I shook my head.

"Not really." I said. "Just someone I knew a while back apparently."

"Really?" He asked, obviously interested. I nodded.

"Yeah, I thought I remembered seeing her a few days ago but that can't be right." I said.

"Why not?" Jackson asked.

"She died about a week ago." I said. "Her arwing blew up after she was shot down over Katina. I really don't know how to feel about it either… I think I really liked her, but maybe I'll never know how she felt now."

"Do you remember her name?" He asked.

"No, but Grimmsley looked her up for me." I said. "It's Christina Eve." Jackson nodded a few times.

"That sucks." He said. "But who knows? Maybe Grimmsley was wrong." I thought about it for a moment, but it didn't seem possible with as much proof as there was against the possibility. "Anything else you've managed to remember?" Jackson asked after a moment.

"Not yet." I said. "But who knows? I could remember everything tomorrow."

"That's the spirit!" Jackson said, smiling and patting my arm. I looked at him and for the first time noticed that he was wearing gloves.

"Why are you wearing gloves?" I asked.

"I am?" He asked, looking at his hands. "I must've forgotten to take them off after I got back inside. Whatever. I'd better let you get back to resting then!" He said, standing up and walking over to the curtain. He stopped, turned to me and added, "I'll try and stop in again in the next few days alright?"

"I'd appreciate it." I said, smiling back. "It's been pretty dull just sitting here trying to remember."

"Anything to make your time stuck in here a little more exciting." He said with just a hint of a smile. I watched him go and settled down to get to sleep, hoping that with a decent night's rest maybe everything would make sense. Something stopped me from falling asleep though. It took me an hour of rolling around on that uncomfortable gurney to realize that something wasn't right. I felt dizzy even though I was lying down and my right arm was completely numb. I looked around but couldn't make heads or tails out of where I was so I tried shouting out to get the attention of anyone but all that came out was a hoarse whisper as my throat began to swell shut. I tried to reach out of my gurney with my numb arm in an attempt to grab the curtain or wave my arm or anything but I couldn't lift it more than an inch up. In a last ditch effort to get some the attention of anyone I rolled to the edge of the gurney and with the last of my strength, up and over the gurney's support bar. As I fell the wires hooked into my arm monitoring my vitals popped out and the machine began emitting a loud whining noise. A moment after I hit the ground face-first with a thump, I heard the curtain draw back followed by frantic shouts. The last thing I remember is someone flipping me over on my back and turning my head around as they inspected it.


	8. Chapter 8: Things Get Worse

Operation: Recovery

Chapter 8:**Things Get Worse**

I woke up in an eerily similar condition as I had two days before. My eyes shot wide open and I quickly looked around the room (which hadn't changed at all) before noticing the tubes that had been reinserted into my left arm and shoved down my throat.

"Hey! He's awake!" Someone to my right shouted. As I looked over I was surprised to find Vivian in her flight suit sitting in the chair next to my gurney. We both watched as the curtain drew back and Nurse René appeared. She looked at me and, without even asking, walked over and slowly removed the tubes sticking in my throat for a second time.

"What happened?" I asked.

"That depends," Nurse René said, placing the tubes on a metal cart nearby, "how far back can you remember?" I thought about it for a second before saying,

"I remember pain, and weakness, and then I rolled out of my bed and hit the floor with my face."

"Anything before that?" She asked.  
"Major Jackson showed up, we talked for a little bit, then before that Grimmsley told me that there's something wrong with my memory." I said. "That was after you'd spent two days asking me about my career and personal life." Nurse René nodded her head.

"Good." She said. "We were afraid that what had happened to you might've caused a relapse, but thankfully your memory still seems to be intact. To be totally honest, we're still not completely sure what happened. When we found you face down two nights ago—"

"What?" I asked.

"You've been unconscious for over two days." Nurse René said. "Anyway, when we realized that your throat was swelling up and your heart was slowing down we gave you something to reduce the swelling and get your heart beating again. It kept you breathing but you didn't wake up. We put you back into your gurney and for a while it seemed like you'd be okay but a few hours later your symptoms came back. That really threw us for a loop. We shot you up again to reduce the symptoms, but met with limited success this time. We drew blood and started running tests, trying to figure out what the world could've caused your sudden illness. Your symptoms kept coming back so we eventually had to shove that tube down your throat so air could get into your lungs but keeping your heart beating…" She stopped, her expression turning dark. "…We couldn't keep giving you stimulants, your system would've crashed. We needed to perform an emergency bypass but we don't have the machinery here on The Savannah so we had to call and wait for one from the hospital in the port. We managed to keep you alive long enough for the machine to arrive and get you hooked up. I'm sorry about the scars, but it was either that or…" I looked at her before what she said fully translated. My chest'd been covered by a white cloth and I slowly lifted it up and saw a patch of fur missing from my chest and a set of scars running across the spot where my heart was. "…That machine was able to keep blood flowing in your veins long enough for us to test it for every known toxin, virus, bacteria, parasite, and allergen all of which came back negative. We had to take you off the bypass machine yesterday morning but your heart started beating normally and your throat stopped swelling up. Ever since then we've just been waiting for you to wake up."

"You sure took your sweet time though didn't you, Captain?" Vivian said, grinning.

"I think I deserve a few days off." I said. "I've been shot, knocked unconscious, lost my memory and now this."

"Maybe, but the mission couldn't wait for you." Vivian said. I looked at her questioningly. "Timberwolf and Dhole showed up in the C.A.F. Taiga about two hours after you went out cold. We spent Saturday moving broken arwings and Jackal Unit onto their ship and moving supplies and Timberwolf and Dhole onto the Savannah. With you unconscious, Grimmsley had to promote someone to lead our squad so he picked me."

"Congrats." I said.

"Thanks." She said. "We left Fichina behind last night and've been flying in the same formation, same strategy that we'd been flying in as we went through Sector X. Right now Omega squad's suppose to be resting in the barracks but I figured I'd stop in and see how you were doing. Luckily I stopped by just in time to see you wake up." The room grew quiet for a moment before I asked,

"Now what?"

"Now," Nurse René said, reaching down to a lower rack on the metal cart and producing a syringe filled with a clear solution, "I give you this; it should help your cell's reproduce faster and finish healing the cuts in your heart and in your chest. It'll also make you drowsy though, so…"

"I should be going anyway." Vivian said, standing up. "I'll see you again in a while Captain."

"Wait." I said, causing her to stop. "Why does everyone just call me Captain? Why doesn't anyone call me Matt?"

"I'll explain later, alright?" She said. I nodded and she waved to me before disappearing behind the curtain.

"Okay." Nurse René said, approaching me. She stuck the needle into the tube running in my arm before adding, "You might feel a little weird for a second but you'll probably be unconscious in…"

I remember having really bad dreams after I fell asleep. I was back on Fichina, standing under an awning to some building whose windows were flashing with neon lights. I kept looking to my left and my right, up and down the street I was on. I thought I was looking for something, but I couldn't find it even though the streets were completely empty. I finally looked across the street and saw myself standing under an awning to a building with neon lights in the windows with someone standing next to me. I squinted, trying to figure out who I was with and the me across the street turned to the person next to him and smiled, and they smiled back. I tried to shout out, but I couldn't speak so I sat there watching as whoever I was with and I stood there talking. A sudden explosion in the middle of the street threw me back, but instead of backing into the building I fell into an empty field. I looked around and I wasn't on Fichina anymore, I was on Katina instead. Another explosion, closer to me than the previous one had been, made me decide to get up and run. I made it about fifteen feet before Grimmsley suddenly appeared in front of me, a blaster drawn, his face just as serious as ever.

"I should've done this a long time ago." He said. Another explosion behind me caught my attention and I quickly turned around before turning back to Grimmsley. Except Grimmsley had turned into Vivian, blaster still trained on me.

"Sorry Captain." She said, shrugging. "But sometimes things just don't work out the way you want them to." Another explosion, closer than the first one, drew my attention again and when I turned back to Vivian she'd changed into Eve.

"I really wanted things to work out Matt." She said, tears in her eyes. "Why didn't you come back for me?"

"Eve…" I started to say before a third explosion, less than ten feet behind me made me turn around for a third time.

"You just couldn't let it go could you?" I heard someone different shout. I turned back around and saw Major Jackson staring at me, giving me the same expression he had right before he dragged me back into his ship. "I should've just killed you the first time; it would've been much easier. Instead, we have to do this the hard way." I frantically looked around and suddenly became aware of a loud whistling. I looked up and was just able to make out something, an extremely large bomb, falling towards me. I looked back down, expecting to see someone else but Major Jackson was still standing in front of me.

"Good-bye Matt." He said. He pulled the trigger on his blaster right as the bomb landed a few inches in front of me.

The resulting explosion woke me up, hard. I sat straight up, panting hard and sweating. I sat there for a moment before I realized something was different. The medical bay which had been quiet when I'd fallen asleep was now full of noise, men and women groaning, life-support machines beeping and humming, and the frantic scramble of nurses. The curtain that had previously cut me off from the rest of the world was gone, letting me see what was going on. All of the gurneys (which I assume had been empty before I passed out) had someone in them and additional gurneys had been brought in as well. There were four or five nurses running around from person to person, treating them.

"What happened?" I asked.

"We were ambushed." An older male pilot in the gurney next to mine said. "They came at us hard, really hard, focusing their attack on the Savannah. All hands were called and we all rushed out to meet 'em but there were twice as many as the first time. Coyote Unit wound up leaving the Discovery unprotected to fall back to the Savannah to defend it and they paid for it. The Discovery was captured by pirates and dragged off into the asteroid field. It must've been what the brigands were after the whole time because the moment they had her, they all fell back. Grimmsley ordered Coyote Unit's Omega Squad leader and their major back to the Savannah. The way I hear it, Major Jackson might avoid a majority of the blame since he ordered Omega Squad's temporary captain to stay put and it was her decision to break off. She might be court marshaled or worse, stripped of her rank and discharged." I couldn't believe my ears. Vivian had always been a little reckless, but she was a better pilot than I was and I wasn't about to let her get kicked to curb by Grimmsley.

"Where are they?" I asked.

"I'd guess Grimmsley's private quarters." The pilot said, thinking. "Grimmsley sort of met them in the hangar and walked off with them in tow." I went to sling myself out of the gurney but stopped as the wires in my arm grew taunt. I looked at them and sighed before, gritting my teeth, I yanked them out. I watched for a moment as blood slowly came trickling out of my new wound before swinging myself out onto my feet. With as loud as it was, it took a nurse a moment to notice the blaring noise of my heart supposedly stopping and she rushed over to me. She looked at me for a moment, a mix of worry and confusion on her face, before I caught the attention of Nurse René who pushed the nurse out of the way.

"What are you stupid?!" She shouted at me over the noise.

"I have to see Grimmsley." I said. Nurse René looked at me before, with a roll of her eyes, she said,

"Stay put." I was going to protest but she ran off across the medical bay before returning with a syringe. "You'll never make it in your current condition; your cells haven't had time to regenerate and clot together properly. This," she said, stabbing my arm with the needle and injecting me, "should stop you from bleeding out. Just don't do anything that exerts your heart too much or the synthetic clotting agent I just gave you will break up and you'll wind up with a huge tear in your heart."

"Thanks." I said. She nodded before running off to tend to another wounded pilot. I took a careful step, unsure of whether or not I remembered how to walk after spending four days in bed. Satisfied by the results, I walked out of the medical bay and turned left down the hall and towards Grimmsley's quarters.

I turned left half way between the medical bay and the hangar and had to climb up a flight of stairs before turning left and walking the rest of the way to the back of the ship. The door to Grimmsley's quarters was open just a fraction and I could see him standing behind his desk with Jackson and Vivian across from him and with their backs to me. I got as close to the door as I could without giving away that I was listening in.

"…the six pilots from Dhole unit aside, your actions weren't exactly what I was expecting, Lieutenant Wilde." I heard Grimmsley say.

"Yes sir." Vivian responded. "But sir, with all due respect—"

"No buts Lieutenant." Grimmsley said, staring at her. "Because of your actions we lost one of the ships we were supposed to be protecting. It's for that reason that I'm afraid I have no choice but to—"It was at that moment that I accidently put too much weight against the door and it slid the rest of the way open and I stumbled into the meeting.

"Captain?" Grimmsley said, more than a little surprised to see me. I stood up, trying to look as presentable as I could in just a pair of slacks and bandages.

"Sir, I take full responsibility for the actions of my squad and the loss of The Discovery." I said. Everyone looked at me, unsure of what to make of my request.

"I don't see how that's possible Captain since you weren't even in command when the incident happened." Grimmsley said.

"Whether or not that's true, it is my squad sir." I said. Grimmsley shook his head.

"I'm sorry Captain, but Lieutenant Wilde's going to have to suck this one up and deal with her punishment." Grimmsley said.

"Permission to speak freely sir?" I asked. Grimmsley nodded. "It'd be the biggest mistake of your career to discharge Lieutenant Wilde; she's one of the best pilots you have."Grimmsley looked at me, still obviously confused. He shook his head slightly before saying,

"You're right, it would be. That's why it never crossed my mind." Now it was my turn to look confused. "Now, as I was saying before Captain Rayes interrupted, I have no choice but to relieve you of your position as temporary captain and to assign it to someone else."

"Why not give it back to the Captain?" Vivian asked, hiding a grin.

"Are you feeling up to flying again Captain?" Grimmsley asked. I nodded, lying. "I'll have to clear it with the medical staff, but that shouldn't be a problem." Grimmsley walked out from behind his desk and over to an intercom system on the wall next to the door. "I need to speak to the head nurse." He said, pressing a button. There was a moment before Nurse René's voice came in over the channel.

"Sir, this really isn't a good time." She said.

"Just one quick question Nurse." Grimmsley said. "Is Captain Rayes cleared for duty?"

"You're kidding right?" She said. "In his current condition just taking off would probably kill him. If everything goes well he might be ready to fly again in a few weeks."

"I want him to get back out there today nurse." Grimmsley said.

"There's no way that's going to happen." Nurse René said. "I'd need to inject him with anti-biotics, another few does of clotting agent, a moderate sedative, and a few other odds and ends."

"Do it." Grimmsley said.

"Sir…" Nurse René said, sighing. "You can't just go mixing compounds around like that; the side effects could be—"

"Will it kill Captain Rayes?" Grimmsley asked.

"No, but—"

"Then I don't see the problem." Grimmsley said. There was a moment of silence before Nurse René added,

"Even if I wanted to, the medical bay's full. There was an accident in the hangar and Captain Raye's gurney's been filled."

"You can treat him in the barracks." Vivian said. "I mean, it's not like he needs a nurse watching over him twenty-four seven anymore does he? What difference does it make where he's out cold?"

"That's not a bad idea." Grimmsley said. "I want it done Nurse, got it?"

"Yes sir." Nurse René said, sighing again.

"Before you leave, I might as well tell you something since you'll be unconscious for the next couple of hours." Grimmsley said, looking at me. "We're not going looking for The Discovery, not until we get out of the Asteroid Field. We'll spend a day searching, by that time The Tiega should catch up. Once it does I'm transferring Coyote Unit to The Tiega and you, along with what's left of Jackal Unit, will continue to look while Dingo, Dhole, and Timberwolf finish escorting Seeker and Curiosity to Cornaria. Once they're safe on the ground and we've got fresh supplies, we'll come back and help The Tiega finish the search. Now, I'd advise the three of you get back to your barracks as soon as you can. I'm guessing Nurse René won't wait forever."

As the three of us stepped past Grimmsley, Major Jackson slapped me on the back.

"You're a lucky guy, Captain." He said. "Most people wouldn't've survived what you've been through."

"Luck had nothing to do with it." Vivian said. I stopped walking as something in my brain clicked.

"I remember…" I said. "It was you!" I shouted, pointing at Jackson. He turned around and looked at me, confused.

"What was me?" He asked.

"It's because of you that everyone calls me Captain!" I said. "The day I got my promotion, Grimmsley called you and me into his office. He congratulated us on a job well done on the mission we'd just gotten done with, and then he told me that the captain of Omega Squad was being reassigned to the Cornarian Air Defense Unit and that I was being promoted. When we got back to the barracks you made a huge deal about it before Duke said 'Lucky you,' then Vivian said, 'luck had nothing to do with it'. Duke said something about how my nose was browner than anyone else's in our Unit except maybe yours and then you said about how everyone should show their new Captain more respect. Ever since then Vivian, Duke, Chuckles and everyone else has just called me Captain all because you had to make a huge deal out of it." Vivian and Jackson looked at me before both of them burst out laughing.

"I'd completely forgotten about that." Jackson said. "Alright, I'm sorry. If you're tired of hearing it, I'll stop and, who knows? Maybe I'll be able to convince everyone else."

"Almost everyone." Vivian said. "I doubt you'll be able to convince Duke to stop."

"You're probably right." Jackson said, sighing. The hall grew quiet as the conversation ended, before Jackson, as if suddenly remembering something he had to do, bolted and left Vivian and I standing there. I watched him run for a moment before, turning to Vivian, I asked,

"What was that about?" She shrugged, but her grin made me think she knew more than she was letting on.

"Were you seriously going to take the fall for my mess up?" She asked as we started walking again. I nodded.

"I thought it'd make us even." I said, jokingly. "I owe you for saving my life."

"Which time?" Vivian asked.

"The last time we flew through the Asteroid Field." I said. "And over Zoness, and the bar on Cornaria."

"You forgot Titania and Sector X." She said.

"I didn't forget them." I said. "I just haven't remembered them yet."

"Right." She said. She stopped walking and I stopped. "Seriously, Cap—Matt." She said, her voice losing its usual biting wit, "…Thanks."

"It's the least I could do." I said, smiling.

"We're even." She said, her voice changing back. She walked in front of me before turned around and adding, "At least, until I have to save you again."

We arrived back at the barracks a minute later; It nearly empty except for Duke, Chuckles and of course, Nurse René, who was waiting by bunk with a metal cart and a monitor. She was talking to Chuckles before, seeing me, she stopped.

"Captain Rayes, I'd appreciate it if we could get this done today." She said, extremely annoyed.

"Sorry." I said, quickly making my way to my bunk and lying down.

"As I was just telling your squadmates," Nurse René said, picking a scalpel up off the cart, "what about to do is dangerous, considering you're generally not supposed to mix medications. But, since Brigadier General Grimmsley doesn't seem to care about your kidneys potentially shutting down or you experiencing brain damage, I'm going to give you a medical cocktail guaranteed to fix your heart and should have you able to fly again within the next twenty four hours. Since I'm not about to risk losing any man I can, I'm hooking you back up so we can monitor your vitals. Your squad's offered to take turns watching you and, should you suddenly flat line, to come get me." She made a small incision on my right arm and inserted the wire from the machine before wrapping the spot in gauze and flipping the machine on. It beeped and Nurse René nodded approvingly. "This," she said, picking a needle up off the tray, "is an antibiotic to help fight any potential infections you could get." I winced as the needle went into my left arm. Nurse René pushed down on the plunger, injecting me with the odd colored contents of the syringe. She pulled the needle out and replaced it on the cart before bandaging the spot and picking up another needle. "This," she said, injecting me with the second needle, "is more of the clotting agent I gave you earlier. It should be enough to get your heart back into one piece." Again she bandaged my arm before picking up a third needle. "This is something that should stop several of your organs from shutting down as a result of the rest of the stuff I'm about to give you." She said, plunging it into my arm. She injected me three or four other times with various medicinal things before, finally, she picked up a last needle. "This is a sedative; it'll knock you out so your body can work more efficiently and it should dull any pain you might be feeling."

"Why didn't you give me that first?" I asked, looking up at her dismally.

"If I'd given it to you first, your slower pulse would've made things take twice as long." She said. I suddenly felt beyond tired and as my eyes closed, I passed out.


	9. Chapter 9 A Little Friendly Competition

Operation: Recovery

Chapter 9: **A Little Friendly Competition**

I came to about fifteen hours later. Not much had changed; a few pilots from Beta Squad were lounging around in the back part of the barracks, and Duke was lying in his bunk, next to mine. He sat up as he saw me come to.

"How do you feel?" He asked.

"Like I've been stuck in a bed for too long." I said, sitting up.

"Well, maybe I can help with that." He said as he reached behind his bunk. A second later he tossed a flight suit at me. "Grimmsley wants to make sure you can remember how to fly. He's already got your arwing prepped and ready to go."

"Thanks." I said. I swung my legs out of bed and stood up, completely forgetting about the wire stuck in my arm until I felt it pop out. I yelped, more out of surprise than anything else.

"Come on, Captain. That couldn't've been that painful." Duke said.

"You want to find out for yourself?" I asked as I looked at my arm. Duke watched as blood slowly trickled down my arm.

"You want something to..?" He started ask. I shook my head as I quickly wiped the blood off on my flight suit. I took off the pair of slacks I'd been wearing for the past week and changed into the clothes Duke had thrown to me. I started walking towards the door and was surprised to find Duke still sitting in his bunk.

"Aren't you coming?" I asked.

"I've been stuck here watching you for the past five hours." He said. "I think I deserve a few hours of sleep."

"Suit yourself." I said before turning back around and making my way to the hangar.

The sound of our ships engineers fixing the arwings reached my ears long before I stepped into the hangar. The middle section of the hangar was completely empty and all of the arwings had either been moved forward or aft depending on their condition. I looked towards the end of the hangar and watched as engineers with welding torches tried to fix holes in wings and others with small handheld diagnostic tools checked to see whether the fighter's shield generators were still capable of functioning. Others still were running back and forth with trolleys, laden with scrap metal and replacement parts. As I looked to my left I was shocked to see how few arwings were still up and running. A shrill whistle and a waving hand drew my attention to two arwings at the front of the group.

"It's about time you showed up!" Vivian shouted over the noise as I got closer.

"Why are—"

"Grimmsley said he wanted someone to go out flying with you to help you out." Vivian explained. "Jackson had volunteered for the job, but I managed to convince him to let me do it instead."

"How?" I asked as I climbed up into the arwing next to hers.

"I told him you might remember more if you were flying with someone from your own squad." She said. "Grimmsley said 'that makes sense' and since Duke was watching you, and Chuckles was off playing doctor with Nurse René I was the only person available."

"Lucky me." I said, grinning as I put my helmet on. The canopy on Vivian and my arwing's closed. I flipped the comms system on my helmet on.

"Your engine and shields have already been calibrated, so all you need to do is get that thing off the ground." Vivian said. "You'll have to disengage the Magnetic Landing Gear first, then gently hit up on the vertical thrusters to launch your arwing into the air. You'll have to be quick though, or your arwing'll scrape across the hangar and crash into something. Think you can handle that?" I looked over the array of buttons, switches, levers and dials before finding the one marked "M.L.G.". I took the stick on one hand and quickly disengaged the electromagnet keeping my arwing in place before pressing down on a lever. My arwing launched several feet into the air and, with a grin, I pushed down on the throttle and launched my arwing out into space.

The convoy was stopped at the edge of the asteroid field. The two remaining scientists' ships, Seeker and Curiosity, were in front of The Savannah, whose cannons were firing every so often as asteroids strayed too close. Beyond Seeker and Curiosity was Cornaria, its blue oceans and white clouds clearly visible from where we were stuck.

"Alright, so you can get your arwing out of the hangar." Vivian said as she passed me. "Let's see if you can remember the basics. Do a barrel roll." I slammed hard right on the stick and my shipped rolled.

"Not bad." Vivian said. "Think you can remember how to do a summersault?" I nodded before pressing down on the throttle and up on the stick. As I launched upward I cut back on the throttle for a second as I turned my ship right side up before launching back down with another press of the throttle.

"That only leaves a U-Turn." Vivian said. I watched as she executed the maneuver. I pressed down on the throttle and up on the stick, again launching myself upwards. Instead of angling back down, however, I leveled off and flipped my arwing over.

"Pretty good considering you've been stuck in a bed for a week." Vivian said with a grin as I pulled up alongside her.

"Anything else ridiculously easy you want me to do?" I asked.

"Yeah, actually." Vivian said. "That is. If you're up to it."

"Name it." I said. With a sudden burst of speed, her arwing pulled in front of mine and Vivian slammed on the brakes. In the split second I had I tried to stop our ships from colliding by forcing my arwing into a sharp dive. Before I could say anything, Vivian shouted,

"Catch me if you can hotshot!" Before jetting off into the asteroids. I looked at her for a moment, absolutely lost before, with a shrug, I followed after her.

It didn't take me long to get her back in my sights, at which point I asked,

"What the hell was that about?"

"You said you were up for anything." Vivian said, rolling off to the right. "So, I figured we'd have a little game. You and I are going to try and out maneuver each other until one of us manages to get in behind the other and score a kill shot. Loser buys drinks for the squad next time we get any time off."

"How're we going to know when that happens?" I asked. "Aren't the arwings' shields calibrated to absorb any energy from friendly weapons?"

"Not these two." Vivian said. "I bribed an engineer to decalibrate their shields, just a little. With any luck, the shots'll break through the shields just enough to leave a nice scorch mark. Of course, there's always the slight chance one of us'll shoot out the others engine, severely damaging an arwing but hey, at least we all know whose arwing it'll be."

"Yeah," I said, closing the gap between us, "yours!" I fired my arwings twin laser cannon multiple times, trying to hit Vivian's engine. Her arwing dodged right before launching into a barrel roll, deflecting any shots that would've actually hit her.

"You'll have to try harder than that." She said, diving away into the asteroids. I went to dive after her but was forced to rethink my strategy as a huge chunk of rock passed within a few feet of the front of my arwing. I quickly pulled up and boosted around it, just in time to see Vivian disappear behind another extremely large asteroid several hundred yards away. I pushed my arwing as fast it would go; rolling around any rock I couldn't blast through.

"Coming in loud huh?" Vivian said.

"Stealth's never really worked for me." I said as I rounded the rock she was hiding behind, only to find that Vivian was gone.

"You just don't know how to make it work." Vivian said, appearing behind me and opening fire. I launched myself up in a summersault, all the while spinning my arwing in an attempt to deflect Vivian's vicious fire.

"That might work on a bunch of bandits…" Vivian said, slamming on the breaks so my summersault would just put me back in front of her, "…but not on me!"

"Can't blame a guy for trying." I said. As I dove back down, rather than even my arwing back out I continued to dive. Vivian didn't wait a second before following me further into the asteroids. Vivian quickly caught up and continued to shoot at me. As one of her shots hit my right wing I swore.

"That doesn't count!" I shouted.

"Fair enough." Vivian said. "It doesn't matter, in just a few more seconds you'll be mine." Desperate, I looked around the asteroid field for anything to save me. Nothing stuck out. I resigned myself to my fate and cast my eyes downward, ready for the inevitable blast, when something caught my eye, the bright red trigger under by thumb that launched my arwing's smart bombs.

"Vivian, you didn't have anything else done to these arwings besides what you had done to the shields did you?" I asked.

"No." She said, cautiously. "Why?" I couldn't help but grin as a plan quickly formulated. I flipped the priming switch on the front of the stick before pressing down on that bright red button. I watched as a smart bomb flew out of the front of my arwing. I waited until it was far enough away before slamming on my breaks and pushing my arwing up. As the bomb exploded it unleashing a blinding light that caught Vivian head on. Vivian, distracted by the sudden bright light, sailed under me and gave me the shot I needed. I fired, clipping Vivian's left wing and narrowly missing her engine. Realizing she was under attack, Vivian took evasive maneuvers and began moving erratically. I realigned my shot, trying to move my arwing with hers but something, a rather large something hurtling towards the still half blind Vivian, made me stop.

"Vivian! You're heading right towards an asteroid!" I shouted as she flew closer and closer to a large chunk of space rock.

"Yeah, sure I am." She said, ignored me and continued her evasive maneuvers. I swore, pushing down my arwing's throttle. I caught up to Vivian and, with just seconds to act, slammed into her left side with the right side of my arwing. It wasn't enough though, and we both crashed. In a split second the asteroid ripped my right wing off and Vivian's left wing off and left a huge crack in the side of my cockpit. Both of our engines suddenly stopped, and I was left floating above Vivian. Alarms started going off in my helmet, warning me first of the fact that I was missing a wing, then of a fuel leak, then of my depleted shields, then finally of the slowly depressurizing cockpit.

"Vivian! You alright?" I asked as I looked down at her. Her head was lying on the controls in front of her and she remained motionless for a moment before sitting up and shaking her head.

"Next time you say 'you're heading right for an asteroid', I'll listen." She said.

"How bad's your ship?" I asked. Vivian looked around, listening to the same sort of alarms I was hearing.

"Left wing's gone, obviously." She said, looking at the empty spot where her wing used to be. "My shields are totally gone, weapons are offline too, but I think I can still limp out of here." She looked up and me, managed a half smile before seeing the crack in my window. "Holy shit." She said, mouth dropping.

"I'll be fine." I lied. "My weapons are still working, I'll take lead. So long as nothing hits us this should be easy."

"Yeah, a real walk in the park." She said. I tried my best to shut off the leak in my fuel line from inside the ship by diverting the fuel into auxiliary lines before starting the engine back up. I flew far enough away from Vivian that I could flip my one good wing over before turning completely around and aiming my ship back towards The Savannah. I flew a few yards before checking to make sure that Vivian was behind me.

"Don't worry, I'm here." She said, turning around and stopping behind me. I nodded, turning my attention to the massive problem of getting home.

What followed were some of the tensest minutes I've ever felt while flying. Rather than gun it out of there, we took our time, slowly forcing our way forward. With our wings clipped, we had to constantly readjust our ships. As it turns out, my weapons were still online, but they'd been damaged; now only one of my lasers was still working and that one laser was constantly firing at chunks of rock. Further distracting me was the blaring warning in my ear, letting me know that if I didn't dock soon I was going to suffocate from lack of oxygen or worse, implode from the lack from pressure. Regardless I pushed on, leading me and Vivian out of the asteroids. As we neared The Savannah I radioed ahead, warning the engineers to clear as much room in the hangar for our ships as they could. It's a good thing they did. As it turns out, both mine and Vivian's Magnetic Landing Gear had been damaged, and neither of our arwings were able to stick to the deck. External locks were brought out and our ships locked down before they could do any harm. As Vivian and I dismounted, we were met by none other than Brigadier General Grimmsley.

"I'd ask what the hell happened," he said as he looked past Vivian and I, "but I have a feeling you'd just lie to me and tell me that some rogue asteroid clipped your wings. Either way, I'm guessing by the fact that both of you are still alive that Captain Rayes is ready to return to active duty. Am I right, Lieutenant Wilde?"

"Yes sir." Vivian said. "Captain Rayes was able to perform both basic and advanced maneuvering and I feel that his flying capabilities have not been hindered by his recent memory lapse."

"Good." Grimmsley said. "As of this moment, Coyote Unit's Omega Squad is in your hands again Captain. Don't disappoint me."

"I'll do my best sir." I said, saluting.

"I'd advise the two of you to get checked out by medical." He said, turning to leave. He stopped, turned his head around and looked us over again before adding, "Or at the very least wash that blood out of your fur. You both look terrible."

We walked to the medical bay where Nurse Rene looked us both over.

"You two have no idea how lucky you are." She said as she finished her examination.

"I think we've got a pretty good idea." Vivian said.

"I'm honestly surprised either one of you can walk, let alone breathe." She said, unintentionally ignoring Vivian. "I've seen smaller asteroids break pilots clean in half but you two only have some minor cuts and some decent sized bruises. It's a miracle if I've ever seen one." The conversation lulled for a moment before I asked.

"Are we clear to go?"

"You in a hurry to get somewhere?" Vivian asked.

"Actually, yeah." I said. "Other than the sponge baths I've gotten while I was stuck in here, I haven't bathed in over a week. I was hoping I'd have enough time to get a shower before the Tiega showed up."

"You should be fine." Nurse Rene said. "But you should limit the amount of time you spend flying over the next few days."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because I have no idea how well you've healed." She said. "You seem fine right now, but overexerting yourself again could cause problems. So, I want to make sure before you go do anything stupid again."

"How do you know he'll do something stupid?" Vivian asked. Nurse Rene turned to look at Vivian, an eyebrow raised. "Sorry, stupid question." Vivian said, grinning.

"Fine, next time I see you hurtling towards a meteor I won't try and save you." I said, looking at Vivian as I stood up.

"Maybe next time you'll lose instead of using a smart bomb to blind me." Vivian said, also standing up. Nurse Rene looked from Vivian to me before, with a shake of her head, she said,

"I don't even want to know, do I?" Vivian and I stopped and looked at her for a second before we both started laughing.

"Nope!" Vivian said.

"Probably not." I said.

Vivian and I continued to laugh as we left med-bay. At the next intersection we stopped.

"I'm gonna go see if there's anything left to eat, alright? I'll meet you back at the barracks." I nodded and watched her walk up the flight of stairs on my right before continuing down the hall towards the ships only shower facility. As I turned the handle and the ships luke-warm water started to pour down on me I started to relax for the first time in over a week. As my mind drifted from one thing to another I started thinking about my memory. I'd slowly been remembering more and more but there were still huge gaps in my memory. I could remember most of my time I'd spent on the Savannah, but I couldn't remember anything from about a week before my memory loss with the exception of meeting Eve. Everything before I started flying for the 15th Division was still a jumbled mess though. I could remember a few odds and ends from about as early as my first year in high school but after that, my memory fell off and that bugged me. I started trying to remember but after several unsuccessful minutes, I gave up. With a sigh I turned the water off and got dressed before heading back to the barracks. The room was empty except for a pilot from Alpha Squad, Vivian, Duke and Chuckles, both of whom were standing next to Vivian's bed as she told them about our "training exercise".

"…we crashed into a meteor and busted our ships up pretty bad."

"How bad?" Chuckles asked.

"Wings clipped, canopy cracked, shields and weapons offline bad." I said, sitting down on my bunk.

"First you lose your memory, and now this?" Duke asked. He shook his head before turning to Chuckles. "How'd you pass your luck on to the Captain huh?"

"I don't know, but I'm not about to take it back." Chuckles said. "I've gone the past week without a single accident and to be honest I kind of like having good luck for a change."

"I'd watch your back." Vivian said, lying down on her bunk. "You never know when that luck might suddenly go bad."

"That's not a threat, is it Vivian?" Duke asked.

"Nope." She said. "But I saw you loosening the bolts on Chuckles bed." She added with a grin. Frantically, Chuckles ran back to his bunk to check it and, finding it perfectly secure, sighed before glaring at Vivian.

"Not funny." He said, sitting on his bed. The room grew quiet for a moment before Duke, who had been lost in thought, asked,

"So, who won?" Vivian and I both half sat up and looked at one another, unsure ourselves of the answer. A crackle from the ship's intercoms and Brigadier General Grimmsley saved us both from trying to figure it out.

"Attention all Coyote Unit personnel, I've just received word from the Taiga; they'll be through the asteroid field in approximately fifteen minutes. I need all Coyote Unit pilots and engineers to report to the hangar now to begin preparations for the transfer to the Taiga. Pilots will fly their arwings over while engineers will have to wait until a shuttle arrives to carry you over. As soon as the transfer is complete the Savannah will finish escorting the two remaining ships to Cornaria while Coyote Unit goes pirate hunting. Once those scientists are safe, the Savannah'll resupply and come help you finish finding the bastards responsible. That is all."

The four of us arrived at the hangar just in time to see Major Jackson arguing with the head of engineering. As it turned out, the engineers had only managed to get eighteen arwings back in working condition, and ten of those were outside protecting the convoy from any potential threats. Coyote Unit needed fifteen arwings, twelve for her pilots and three for pilots from Timberwolf Unit. That meant pulling four ships out of formation and bringing them into the hangar which, according to the head engineer, would seriously jeopardize our defense. Jackson, on the hand, refused to believe that since all of Coyote Units pilots would be out in space at the very least until the Taiga arrived. On top of that, Jackson argued that since Coyote Unit would be sweeping the asteroid field and the Taiga would be just outside it, any enemies would have to deal with the Taiga before they even had a chance to reach the Savannah. In the end Jackson went over the engineers head and called Grimmsley over the hangar's comms system who, naturally, sided with Jackson on the issue. The four arwings needed were pulled from space, and Coyote Unit mounted up and launched.


	10. Chapter 10: New Ship, Same--

Operation: Recovery

Chapter 10:**New Ship, Same...**

It wasn't long after the last of my unit were in space that the Taiga broke through the outer most meteors and slowly came to a stop not far behind the Savannah; its guns still smoking from punching through hundreds of meteors. Compared to the Savannah, the Taiga was smaller and the hangar showed it. With just thirty-five arwings in it and two larger transports at the very back, the hangar was packed. I went to unlock my canopy but an engineer off to my right started waving at me and I stopped just in time to watch one of the transports fly over me on its way to pick up our engineers. I turned back towards the engineer and he gave me a thumbs up, signaling it was alright to get out now. I walked across the hangar and joined a growing crowd of pilots standing in front of the only exit, which was being blocked by a feline woman with short black fur wearing an officer's uniform.

"Is that the last of you?" She asked, looking from pilot to pilot. She quickly counted everyone before, satisfied, she nodded and continued talking. "I am Lieutenant Commander Andrews. For those of you who don't know, I am second in command on-board the Taiga; the only person who outranks me is Commander Cody who would have met you here if he wasn't busy with his own debriefing. I've been instructed to lead you to a spare barracks where you will rest until your engineers arrive. After that, your ships will have to be recalibrated to protect them from our weapons and that could take a few hours, so I suggest you get comfortable. When your ships are ready either Commander Cody or I will debrief you on your orders." Lt. Commander Andrews turned, before adding, "This way."

We'd been walking for about a minute when Duke spoke up.

"Why do we need to be briefed on our orders? I thought they were to find the bastards that jacked our convoy and blow them out of the sky?" Duke said. Lt. Commander Andrews stopped before turned her cold, steely gaze on Duke.

"That's right." She said, "Or about as right as I'd expect someone like you to get." She turned back around and kept walking. "You're new, so outside of simulators I'm guessing you've never had to do an S and R. Well let me be the first to tell all of you that you could not have picked a worse spot or worse time to do this. Ignoring the fact that neither the Taiga nor the Savannah has the fire power needed to go punching through asteroids for more than a few hours and ignoring the fact that we're going to lose the Savannah for at least a day in just a few hours we've got a number of other problems. Your ships are busted up, there's no denying that and, although your engineers may be able to do a patch job here or there, they won't be in the condition they need to be for asteroid field diving. On top of that, we don't have nearly the number of pilots we ought to for a search of this size which, even if we had all of the 15th Division at our disposal, wouldn't be enough. Given all of that, it's up to Commander Cody, myself, and a few others to somehow make this all work or we'll have one massive failure forever hanging over our heads. Now," she said, stopping and turning back around. She pointed to the door to her right. "This is your barracks for so long as you're staying here. I'll have someone come around later to get all of you spare flight suits and whatever else you need. If there's nothing else, I'll leave you to it."

The second Lt. Commander Andrews was gone someone from Alpha Squad called dibs on the bunks at the front of the barracks. Immediately afterwards Beta pushed their way through our group and quickly threw themselves down on the back five bunks. With a shrug I led Omega squad past Alpha and took the bunks next to theirs. Duke, Chuckles, Vivian and I sat down but the pilot from Timberwolf, Lieutenant Michael Tyson, kept walking, choosing instead to sit with Beta Squad.

"Fine by me." Vivian said, watching him for a second. "Guy's barely said a word to any of us anyway."

"Think they'd let Beta fly with six pilots?" I asked.

"It's not like we need him." Duke said, standing up and walking to the front of his bunk. He knelt down to examine the footlocker in front of him and I had to ask,

"What're you doing?"

"Seeing if anyone from Timberwolf or Dhole left anything valuable in here." He said, undoing the latches on both sides of the box only to find nothing. Disappointed, he sat back down.

"Don't you remember?" Vivian asked. "Grimmsley had us haul everything belonging to them off the Taiga and on to the Savannah." Duke shook his head.

"Guess he had me doing something else." He said. Jackson, whose bunk was right next to mine, turned to me and said "Speaking of remembering, how's the memory loss coming, Captain?"

"Given a few more days I just might remember what happened to me." I said.

"Oh yeah?" Jackson said. I nodded.

"I still don't remember a lot, but I finally remembered something from that night." I said.

"What?" He asked.

"I remember Vivian ducking out of the bar and leaving me to pay." I said.

"Hey! We agreed that you were buying!" She said defensively.

"Either way, I remember paying for the drinks but after that…" I stopped. Something in my head was trying to make a connection, and once again I felt like something was stuck on the tip of my tongue. A second later something in my mind clicked, as if a light to a previously darkened room was suddenly turned on; I remembered more. I became aware of everyone nearby staring at me but I ignored them. "…after that I ran out into the alleys to look for you." I said, quietly.

"What?" Vivian said.

"Yeah…" I said, making sure of the memory's authenticity. "That's right! The bartender told me you'd slipped out the back door and I went to make sure you weren't passed out in the alley. I left the bar and started following some tracks but then…" I mentally dug around in every corner of my brain, trying to remember what happened next because I somehow knew it would explain everything. After about a minute of silence I shook my head, giving up. "..I don't remember what happened next." We fell silent again before Jackson, with a grin, slapped me on the back.

"That's alright!" He said. "You're close; I can tell. Pretty soon you won't have to worry about what happened that night ever again."

"What if there's a reason he hasn't remembered yet?" Chuckles asked. "What if he doesn't want to remember?"

"That's crazy." Vivian said. "Why wouldn't he want to remember?"

"What if what happened to him was seriously traumatic?" Chuckles said. "You were shot twice weren't you?" I nodded. "Could you blame someone for trying to forget that?"

"Maybe not, but he'd been shot at more than just twice that day." Vivian said. "We're pilots; being shot at's part of our daily routine. Why would being shot two more times be so much worse?" Chuckles didn't have an answer to that, but Duke did.

"You don't see the guy shooting at you in a dogfight nine tenths of the time." Duke said. "It's a lot more personal when it's just two guys, face to face." Chuckles nodded, but Vivian didn't seem convinced, and neither was I.

"Soo…" Vivian said, trying to fill the lull. "Do you think you'll be able to stand being away from René for more than a few hours Chuckles?"

"Why do we always have to talk about my love-life?" Chuckles shouted, exasperated.

"Because Duke's stories are all exactly the same." Vivian said. "He meets a girl, either she thinks he's hot or she's drunk."

"Or both." Duke added.

"Or both," Vivian repeated, "they get a room, they have sex, and by the next day it's over between them."

"What about Matt?" Chuckles asked.

"There's not a lot to tell there." Duke said. "We all know the Captain hasn't scored since he left the academy. Before that…" Duke thought for a moment before turning to me for an answer. I shrugged.

"I don't remember." I said. Chuckles turned desperately from me to Duke before finally, in a last ditch effort to avert the topic, turned to Vivian.

"What about you?" He asked.

"Me?" Vivian said, a little surprised.

"We always hear about Duke, we know Matt hasn't had any action in a while, and you all know about me, but we've never really heard about your love-life Vivian." Chuckles said.

"Now that you mention it…" Duke said. "I think you might be right."

"So, how about it?" Chuckles said, turning to Vivian.

"If a girl doesn't kiss and tell, there's no way in hell she's going to say anything about having sex." Vivian said, turning her attention to the ceiling.

"That's not exactly fair." Duke said. "I sorta feel like you owe us at least one story." Vivian ignored him and closed her eyes. Duke stood up and walked over to Vivian's bunk. "Come on. What was it, a one night stand?"

"Leave me alone Duke." Vivian said, still trying to ignore him.

"Something a little more?" Duke asked. "A few night stand?"

"Duke, let it go." I said.

"Maybe it was something serious." He said. "Maybe it ended in—"

"I said forget it!" Vivian shouted, sitting up and glaring at him. The barracks grew quiet as everyone turned to stare at Vivian who, realizing she'd become the center of attention, grew red. She sighed before lying back down and turning away from Duke who, after a moment, realized the discussion was over. He walked back over to his bunk and sat down.


	11. Chapter 11: S&R and R&R

Operation: Recovery

Chapter 11: **S&R and R&R**

It wasn't long after that when a member of the Taiga's staff came along and asked us all for our clothing sizes. Once they'd finished getting the information they needed, they left the barracks before returning about twenty minutes later with a supply cart loaded up with clothing. We were instructed to stash our spare flight suits, shirts, slacks, and socks in the footlockers in front of our bunks which took us another five to ten minutes. Once that was done it was still another long, awkward, half hour before we finally heard the voice of Lt. Commander Andrews over the ship's intercom.

"Attention all pilots! I hope you got some sleep because you will not be resting until the Discovery is found. Since we're so pressed for time, Coyote Unit will be divided up into seven groups to allow more of the Asteroid Field to be covered in a shorter period of time." Lt. Commander Andrews proceeded to break each squad up into two groups consisting each of two lieutenants, ending with my squad. "…Lieutenant Wilde will fly with Lieutenant Tyson; Lieutenant Kingston will fly with Lieutenant Starr. The final group will be a group of three consisting of Captain Rayes of Omega Squad, Captain Daniels of Beta Squad, and Major Jackson of Alpha Squad. Since the convoy was ambushed on its starboard side, we've decided to focus the search there. All groups, with the exception of those from strictly Alpha Squad, will perform a sweeping maneuver through the asteroids looking for any sign of our lost ship. Alpha Squad's groups will search the asteroid field to the portside of the ambush location. Each group, again with the exception of Alpha Squad, must stay within radio contact of at least one other group which limits the distance you're allowed to be from one another to around a single kilometer. I shouldn't have to tell you how useless your radar's going to be so you'll have to rely primarily on sight to find that ship. When you find The Discovery you are ordered not to approach immediately. Instead one of the pilots in your group will return to within clear radio contact of the Taiga and relay the Discovery's location to us at which point we will move to intercept. There's a good chance the raiders are still in the area so keep your eyes open. If you're attacked, radio whoever's nearby. Anyone receiving a distress call should alert anyone else in the area before moving to help. The Savannah will be back in roughly three days. I'm not saying you need to find the Discovery before then, but I'd prefer not to have to ask for help finding one ship. The engineers in the hangar should be finished going over your arwings by now. That is all for now."

Within a minute all of Coyote Unit were in their arwings and, row by row, launched themselves into space. We got into our designated groups before lining up along the asteroid field with as much space between us as we could afford.

"Be careful out there everyone." Jackson said before leading my group in with Major Jackson and Captain Daniels flying next to one another in front of me.

It didn't take long for things to start going wrong. Within an hour one group had fallen far behind the rest because of massive asteroids in their path. Another group wasn't watching where it was going and wound up scraping their noses as they slammed on the breaks. Worse still was the fact that we were no longer clearing the Asteroid Field in a linear fashion as we'd been ordered to. Since the asteroids kept cutting in between us, groups would have to fly off to one direction to reestablish radio contact which, in turn, would cause any other groups to move. At one point a group flew around a large asteroid and almost crashed into another group. The worst part about the whole thing was how quickly our fuel started to run out. Lt. Commander Andrews expected us to fly the entire day without refueling but six hours into the search as we cleared the Asteroid Field on the Fichina side and we all realized that was impossible. Most of us were running of vapors as we cleared the field again, back on the Cornaria side. As we all landed back on the Taiga, we were met by Lt. Commander Andrews who looked at us with an expression of shock as we started climbing out of our arwings.

"What the hell are you doing back?!" She shouted. "There's no way you're done!" Duke answered her question.

"We're running on empty." He said, thumping his arwing with his palm. "It's not our fault these arwings are designed for only ten hours of flight."

"We're lucky we all made it back." I added. Andrews continued to stare at us, mouth agape, before with a groan she ordered us to return to the barracks for a few hours of rest while the engineers refueled our ships. I somehow managed to fall asleep before, three hours later, we were all told to get back in our arwings and continue searching.

It wasn't until the next day, after we'd stopped to refuel for a second time that something bad happened to my group. Captain Daniels was still flying in front of me next to Major Jackson.

"Soo…" She started to say, trying to break the silence that'd been hanging over us for the past few hours. "Are you seeing anyone right now, Major?"

"Is now really the best—"

"Not right now." Jackson said, cutting me off. "Why?" He added, feigning ignorance.

"Oh no reason…" Daniels said. After a minute of silence she added, "Next time we're on leave, would you want to, maybe, get a drink or something?" I heard Jackson inhale as if to answer when a crunching noise made us all stop. Daniels, distracted by her date-planning, had failed to notice a meteor coming towards her before it was too late; her right wing had been ripped off, leaving nothing but a jagged hole in her ship. She swore, whether because her plans with Jackson were quickly going south or because her arwing was struggling to fly I honestly don't know.

"You'd better turn back." Jackson said. "You're just going to get yourself killed if you stay out here. We can worry about drinks once we're all safely back on the Taiga."

"Yes sir." She said. She pulled a quick u-turn and I couldn't help but notice a triumphant smile on her face as she passed me by.

"Shouldn't we escort her back?" I asked Jackson.

"Nichole's a good pilot; she'll be fine." Jackson said. "Besides, I feel like we're getting close, any minute now we'll see that ship and then this'll all be over." I didn't feel comfortable letting anyone try to navigate the Asteroid Field alone, but I trusted Jackson's judgment so I did my best to forget Captain Daniels.

After another hour of flying and still not finding anything Jackson told me to stop.

"How about you take lead for a while?" He said. "Maybe you'll see something I can't." I shrugged before pulling past him. We continued flying for a while, both of us silently looking for the lost ship before Jackson shouted,

"Is that it?"

"Where?" I asked, quickly looking around.

"Ahead, down, and to the left." He said. I followed his directions and was amazed to find that he was right; floating just in front of a very large meteor was the Discovery.

"No way." I said. I blinked several times to make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me. When the ship failed to disappear I knew it was real. "I can't believe we found it!" I shouted, just a little excited.

"Don't get your hopes up just yet." Jackson said. "Sure it matches the Discovery's description, but how do we know it isn't just an abandoned ship? We need to get a closer look."

"Doesn't that sort of, go against a direct order from a superior officer?" I asked.

"We're not going to get in trouble." Jackson said.

"Jackson, I feel like Lt. Commander Andrews would court-martial a guy just for forgetting to say 'sir'." I said.

"But how's she going to find out?" Jackson said. "I mean, so long as you don't tell her and I don't tell her, who's going to know?" I still wasn't sure, so Jackson kept prodding. "Look, if it turns out this isn't the Discovery you know how much fuel, ammo, and time we'll waste just getting the Taiga in here? Let's just fly by that ship, make sure it's the Discovery, then you or I can go get the Taiga, alright?" I thought about it for another minute before, with a sigh, I said,

"Fine. But just a quick fly by." I angled my arwing towards the ship and Jackson followed right behind me.

As I got closer and closer to the ship, an uneasy feeling began to bubble up inside of me. Where were the raiders? They wouldn't just abandon their prize after fighting so hard to get it. Did they get what they'd come for and then just left the ship floating in space? I got close enough to notice a magnetic mooring line tethering the ship to the huge asteroid behind it. Why would they bother to tie it up if they weren't coming back for it? Even with all that, something was pushing me on; forcing me to see this thing through to the end. For a moment I hoped that this was just another ship, but that hope was quickly dashed as I read the white letters painted on the side of the ship "DISCOVERY".

"This is it." I said, not as excited as I was a few minutes ago. "It's the Discovery."

"So it is…" Jackson said. "Too bad." Confused I turned around in my seat, just in time to see Jackson's weapons power up. I quickly rolled left, dodging the shot.

"What the hell was that for?!" I shouted.

"Don't worry about it." He said. "This'll all be over soon enough." He squeezed the trigger on his stick again, firing several more bursts of lasers at me. I tried to dodge them, but the space I was in wasn't open enough for anything outside of a barrel rolling which only managed to deflect most of the shots.

"Damn it! Stop shooting at me!" I shouted.

"I'm sorry it had to end like this Matt." Jackson said. "If only your memory had stayed lost, or if only the poison I slipped you had done its job, we wouldn't be in this predicament."

"Poison...?" I said, confused.

"Why else would you suddenly get sick?" He said. "It was a little hard administering it, but fortunately all I had to do was rub it on your skin." I realized then what he was talking about.

"That's why you were wearing gloves!" I shouted. "You tried to kill me over…" I found myself fighting to remember something, anything that would explain Jackson's actions.

"It doesn't matter if you can't remember." Jackson said with a smile as he overrode his arwings security system and locked a charge shot onto me. "Well, it's been nice knowing you Matt! Enjoy the afterlife." That phrase set off the biggest chain reaction in my brain that'd experienced up to that point. Time slowed down as connections formed, allowing me access to the part of my brain that'd been hiding the secret that'd almost gotten me killed three times.

"It was you!" I shouted, launching myself up in an arc over Jackson while simultaneously firing my twin lasers and spinning in an attempt to smash through the meteors above me. The fancy bit of maneuvering worked, and I safely landed behind Jackson. "You knocked me out in the alley!" I shouted, firing at him. "You kidnapped me, had your goons beat me up! You shot me and Eve!..." I stopped for a second as I came to the realization that there was still a chance that Eve was alive. "Where is she?" I demanded, holding my fire.

"Why should I tell you?" Jackson said, quickly trying to out-maneuver me in the confined space.

"Because, if you don't I'll kill you here and now." I said. "Damn it, if you've hurt her…"

"She's in the exact place that you put her." Jackson said, continuing to try to get away from me. "So, she's skinnier, and dirtier, and morally broken but other than that, she's exactly the same."

"You bastard." I growled. "You have ten seconds before I start shooting again."

"I don't think so." Jackson said. A second later my comms channel filled with static as Jackson cut the link. I watched him, curiously wondering what he was planning next when I got my answer. A shot fired from a fighter above me drew my attention up, a space which, in a matter of seconds, began to fill with fighters. By the time I turned my attention back to Jackson he was gone, leaving me alone with ten raiders all of which were trying to kill me. I did the only thing I could at that point, I ran. I dove down, hoping to evade the incoming barrage in the nearby asteroids. Half a second later a huge explosion down and to my right drew my attention to the one thing I really didn't need to see; the raider's carrier punching through the asteroids in an attempt to cut me off. Quickly I switched direction, diving more to my left now than down and managed to get behind an asteroid right as the carrier fired its batteries again, shattering the asteroid. I raced up behind another asteroid just in time to dodge another barrage from the ship. I kept shooting up, further away, and just as the cannons stopped firing I flew right into a hailstorm of laser fire from the raiders' fighters. I quickly launched into a barrel-roll while leveling off before slamming on my thrusters and launching away from the raiders in what I hoped was the direction of the rest of my Unit.

I quickly checked my radar and, despite the massive chunks of rock flying around, could still easily make out six blips following close behind me. I tried to outmaneuver them with everything I could think of, u-turns, summersaults, quick-stops, but each time all I got was closer and closer to having my wings clipped. I started shouting into my comms unit, trying to get the attention of anyone within radio contact.

"This is Coyote Unit's Omega leader! I have multiple bogies on my tail! Can anyone assist?" I winced as an alarm in my helmet began blaring, warning me of my quickly depleting shields. "Damn it! I need help! Where the hell is everyone?!"

"Probably still in formation." I heard Vivian say over the comms channel. I looked around before spotting her coming in from behind, up, and to the left of me. "I'd cover your eyes," she shouted, firing a smart bomb, "it's about to get bright!" I quickly turned back around and covered my eyes, a split second before the bomb detonated.

"Did you get all of them?" I asked as the light faded.

"I think so." Vivian said as she passed overhead. I turned my arwing around to check for myself, just in time to see an enemy fighter duck out from behind an asteroid and fly away. I took several quick shots at it, but none of them connected and the ship got away.

"Damn." I said.

"Guess I missed one." Vivian said, shrugging as she pulled up next to me.

"Don't worry about it." I said, shaking my head. "Where is everyone?" I asked.

"Exactly where I said they were." Vivian said. I guess my confusion was obvious enough, so Vivian explained, "You were the one to drop out of radio contact; not us. Lt. Tyson and I were flying in the group directly to your right. When the group on our right broke contact, he and I started to move closer to restore comms. When your group didn't move with us, I started to think something was wrong. Lt. Tyson insisted that a group consisting of three Captains could handle itself, and that we should just stick with the other group. I disagreed, and told him so at which point he said he didn't care what happened to me and that if I was that worried I could go see for myself. So, I did. By the time I got back to the area where I'd last heard anything from your group though, you were gone. I spent the next few minutes looking around for you before I heard your frantic S.O.S. and, well, now we're here." We sat in silence for a moment as I took in her story.

"I don't even remember losing radio contact." I said. "Between Captain Daniel's getting hit by an asteroid and finding the Discovery I—'  
"You found the Discovery?" Vivian asked. "Wow, what else did I miss? You getting your memory back?"

"Actually… Yeah." I said. "Right before the raider's carrier started shooting at me."

"Seriously?" Vivian asked. I nodded.

"And that was after Jackson had tried to kill me." I said.

"Oh, I gotcha." She said with a grin. "You're bullshitting me, aren't you?" She turned to look at me and I shook my head. "Wait, what? Seriously? But, why the hell would Jackson…?"

"It's a long story." I said. "I'll explain once we get back to the Taiga."

"I'd better go round everyone up then." Vivian said. "If that carrier's seriously out there, it'll take all the firepower we've got to take it down."

I flew straight out of the Asteroid Field before turning to my left towards the Taiga. The second I could I sent a message to the ship's radioman, asking him to have Commander Cody meet me in the hangar. I was surprised then when I hopped out of my arwing and instead found Lt. Commander Andrews waiting for me.

"Hopefully your group has something better to tell me than 'I got clipped by an asteroid'." She said, looking past me. I followed her gaze to a group of engineers welding a new wing onto Captain Daniels' arwing.

"Where's Commander Cody?" I asked. "I told the radioman I needed to talk to—"  
"I'll hear what you have to say and if it's something that needs to be brought to the Commander's attention, I'll do so." Lt. Commander Andrews said curtly.

"It is something that needs to be brought to his attention." I said. "That's why I asked to speak with him."

"I'm more than capable of dealing with whatever it is." Lt. Commander Andrews said.

"I know, it's just—"

"Lt. Commander Andrews!" Someone in a dark green officer's uniform shouted as he ran towards us. Andrews turned around to look at the approaching man before turning back around and, with a sigh, placing her face in her palm. "This is the third time in the past few days you've acted above your rank!" He added as he reached us. "I appreciate your eagerness to prove you can command your own ship, but that doesn't mean you can leave me out of what happens on mine! Do I make myself clear?" Andrews removed her face from her hand before nodding. He turned to me next and extended his hand.

"Captain Rayes I'm guessing." He said.

"Yeah." I said, grasping his hand with mine.

"Commander Cody." The man said. "I'm supposed to be running this ship, but," he added the next words with a grin, "my Lieutenant here seems to have other plans." I stared at the man for a moment, trying to get a read on him. Despite his stern attitude with Lt. Commander Andrews, there was nothing in his tone to suggest any malice or cruelty; he was just upset that she was trying to do his job. He was younger than I'd expected him to be as well; not a gray hair to be seen in his golden fur or a wrinkle on his face. All in all he seemed to be quite different from the cold, commanding nature of Brigadier General Grimmsley.

"Commander," Lt. Commander Andrews said, stepping around to the front of her CO, "I—"  
"Am relieved for the time being." Commander Cody said. "If the Captain said he wanted to talk to me, I think he should get the chance. If I need your help, I'll let you know." Lt. Commander Andrews seemed hesitant to leave but another insistent glare from Commander Cody made her reconsider.

"Yes sir." She said.

"Is this something we can discuss here Captain," Commander Cody said, turning back to me, "Or…"

"I'd prefer it if we could talk in private Commander." I said. He nodded.

"My quarters it is then." He said, turning around. All Cornarian carriers are built exactly the same, so the path from the hangar to the commanding officer's quarters was nothing new to me. Commander Cody led me up a few flights of stairs towards the back of the ship before stepping through a door at the end of a hall. I closed the door as I stepped through before turning to Commander Cody, now seated in the chair behind his desk.

"Sir, I'm somewhat glad to report that less than a few hours ago a group consisting of Captain Daniels, Major Jackson and myself found our missing ship." I said.

"That's good news." He said. "But, I don't see why you wanted to talk to me in private."

"There's more." I said. "Captain Daniels collided with an asteroid before our group found the Discovery and Major Jackson ordered her to return to the Taiga for repairs. After another two hours Major Jackson spotted the Discovery and he and I flew closer to investigate and confirm that it was in fact our ship. It was shortly after confirming the ship's identity that Major Jackson fired upon me."

"What?" Commander Cody said, sitting completely upright.

"After failing to kill me, I managed to get the upper-hand on Major Jackson before he cut radio contact and ran. It was at this point that enemy fighters as well as the appearance of the raider's carrier forced me to fall back. I probably would've been killed had Lt. Wilde not shown up and saved me. She managed to kill nearly all of my pursuers; one slipped back towards the carrier. I flew straight back here as fast as I could, knowing that something needed to be done." Commander Cody sat there in stunned silence for nearly a minute before finally asking,

"Where is Lt. Wilde now?"

"Directing Coyote Unit to return here." I said. Commander Cody nodded. He sat back in his chair; hand on his chin, lost in thought and didn't speak again for a few minutes.

"Why would Major Jackson…" He mumbled to himself.  
"I think I can shed some light on the why, sir." I said. He looked up at me. "It's a bit of story sir, and to be honest, I don't even think it's information I should be sharing." I could tell that bit really got Commander Cody curious and I launched into length about what had happened over the past week to me, starting with Fichina. I told him about the bar, about leaving to find Vivian, seeing the incident in the alley, the chase that followed, my interrogation, my escape with Lt. Eve, our capture at the hands of Major Jackson and finally Jackson ultimately revealing his plan to me before wiping my memory. When at last I got done the expression on Commander Cody's face was as worried and distressed as I'd expected it to be.

"I don't know what to say." He said, shaking his head. "I'm the first person you've told all of this to right?" I nodded. "Grimmsley needs to know then." I thought of protesting for a moment; that we should be focusing our attention of getting our ship back and taking Jackson down, but I knew Commander Cody was right. He pressed a button on a small console on his desk and a holographic interface in his desk lit up. After pressing a few more buttons a hologram of Brigadier General Grimmsley appeared.

"Commander," the hologram said, looking sternly at Cody, "this line is for emergencies only so whatever you have to say better be damn important."

"Captain Rayes found the Discovery sir." He said to the hologram.

"That's hardly worth using the emergency line for, Commander." Grimmsley said.

"He also claims that Major Jackson tried to blow him out of the sky once they found the ship because the Major is in league with the enemy." Cody added.

"That's quite a claim." Grimmsley said. "Does he have any proof?"

"I remembered what happened on Fichina sir." I said. The hologram turned around to face me. "I wasn't mugged; I was knocked out and interrogated because I stumbled on to something I wasn't supposed to see."

"And that would be?" Grimmsley asked.

"Jackson blackmailing one of the scientists from the Discovery." I said. "Jackson was threatening to kill the man's family unless he handed over shipping manifests for the Discovery, the Seeker and the Curiosity. Jackson needed the manifests to determine which ship he'd have to avoid blowing up to get his hands on what he wanted."

"Which would be?" Grimmsley asked. "You're leaving more questions than you're answered Captain."

"Jackson's been after a bit of Androssian tech designed to manipulate memories." I said. "He hired a team of thieves to break into a secure military compound to steal half of a device. The second half of the device was on board the Discovery which is why he had a group of raiders ambush us and capture it."

"And you know all of this because…?"

"Jackson told me right before he used the device to wipe my memory." I said.

"Anything else?" Grimmsley asked.

"One other thing sir." I said. "Lt. Christina Eve is alive and is being held prisoner on board the raider's carrier. We need to be careful when engaging it; if we disable it we should be able to board and saver her."

"Let me make sure I understand what you're telling me." Grimmsley said, thinking. "So, an officer in your unit, who has been cited numerous times for his heroism, bravery, and loyalty, has secretly been plotting to steal technology that may or may not exist. He is also responsible for the kidnapping of a woman who, according to Bill Gray, one of the most decorated pilots in the entire C.A.F., is dead and managed to pull it off while hundreds of thousands of miles away. Major Jackson is also responsible for your memory loss, memory loss which occurred after heavy drinking and, according to our head nurse, may have been caused by you hitting your head." I started to protest but a simple look from Grimmsley shut me up. "I'm not done yet, Captain. The last thing you're telling me is that Major Jackson somehow managed to coordinate an attack on our convoy while maintaining radio contact with the rest of his unit. Now, besides your memory, which has been more than faulty over the past week, do you have any proof that Major Jackson is a traitor?" I thought hard, but there wasn't anything; everything I had on Jackson had come from his mouth and were just words.

"No sir." I said. Grimmsley nodded.

"That's what I thought." He said. Grimmsley turned back towards Commander Cody. "Commander we've finished resupplying and should be within short-range communications within the next thirty-six hours. Even if everything else Captain Rayes has just said is false, he at least thinks he's found the Discovery. Once we've linked up, we'll return command of Timberwolf and Dhole to you along with fresh arwings. Only after then will we move out to the supposed location of the Discovery. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir." Cody said. Grimmsley nodded again before his hologram faded. Cody looked up at me.

"I guess it's not that surprising." He said, with a shrug. "Jackson's not even under my command and he's tried to kiss up to me. Grimmsley though…" I didn't have anything to say to Commander Cody, the only thing that came to mind were all things that could get me court marshaled for insubordination. So I opened the door and slammed it shut behind me before walking back to the barracks. No one was back yet so I threw myself down on my bunk and was about to scream obscenities at the top of my lungs when Vivian walked in.

"There you are." She said, walking over to my bunk. "We've been back for about an hour now and I couldn't find you. I was giving up and thought I'd just wait for you here." I didn't answer her; I didn't even acknowledge her appearance. "Hey," she said, tapping me on the arm, "is something wrong?" I continued to ignore her and rolled on my side so I was facing away from her. "Now I know something's up." She said, walking around my bunk and sitting down on the one next to it. "I'm not leaving until I get an answer. So, what's up?"

"You want to know what the problem is?" I shouted, sitting up and facing her. "Nothing is going right! I finally get my memory back and all it took was Jackson trying to kill me! I thought I could trust him! Did you know this is the third time he's tried to kill me in the past week? He's the one who shot me! He also poisoned me in the medical bay! And of course he just tried to shoot me down! He also wiped my memory and, even though I can remember what happened to me that night, I still don't remember half of my own damn childhood! Then there's Grimmsley who, because of Jackson's obsessive ass-kissing combined with the fact that Grimmsley still secretly blames me for the death of his nephew, doesn't believe a word of what I just told him! The worst part of it all is that this incredible girl I met on Fichina, the one who Grimmsley told me was dead and had been for at least a week, is, in fact, alive and being held hostage on that damn carrier floating out there and there's nothing I can do to save her because Grimmsley thinks I'm crazy!"

"What girl?" Chuckles asked. I turned around to find both Duke and Chuckles standing behind me. I sighed before saying,

"Her name's Eve, she's a pilot in the 17th division."

"Is she hot?" Duke asked.

"Do you have a data tablet on you?" I asked, looking up at Duke. He nodded before reaching into a pocket inside his shirt and pulling out the object I was looking for. He handed it to me and I quickly linked it with the military personnel lists available to any soldier. I did a quick search before pulling up Eve's file and handing the tablet back to Duke.

"'Lieutenant Christina Eve,'" Duke read. "Katinan Air Defense, served on Bulldog Unit for her entire career, do they have any pictures of her?" He asked. He scrolled through the file before stopping and letting out a low whistle.

"What?" Chuckles asked. He looked over Duke's shoulder and his jaw dropped. "Damn Matt, you almost hooked up with her?"

"Sort of." I said.

"Let me see her." Vivian said. Duke walked around the bed before handing the data tablet to Vivian. She looked at the image on the screen for a second before handing it back to Duke.

"She's not that hot." Vivian muttered, looking away from Duke.

"What are you kidding?" Duke said scanning through the images on the tablet again. "She's so hot I'm surprised Fichina didn't melt while she was on it. You mean to tell me she's stuck on that carrier out there?" Duke asked turning to me. I nodded. "Hell Captain, if that's all that there is between us and her I'd be willing to try and take that thing out." I shook my head.

"Grimmsley's ordered us to stay put until he gets back." I said.

"How long'll that be?" Vivian asked.

"At least a day and a half." I said.

"So we're just supposed to wait around until then?" Duke asked.

"Pretty much." I said.

"That blows." Duke said. He walked back around to where Chuckles was standing and punched him in the arm. "Come on." He said as he started walking towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Chuckles asked.

"Anywhere but here." Duke said. "There's no way I'm going to just lie in my bunk for a day and a half." Chuckles shrugged to himself before running after Duke.

"I'm with him." Vivian said, standing up. "You wanna come?"

"Maybe in a bit." I said. "I just need some time to myself."

"With as rough as you've had it the past few days, you deserve a little peace and quiet." Vivian said. "If you change your mind, come find me, okay?" I nodded and watched her leave before turning my attention back to my own thoughts. I spent well over an hour going through my memories, trying to figure out if there was anything I could've done differently to save Eve. I came up with several things but quickly realized how pointless what I was doing was. With a sigh I launched myself out of my bunk and left the barracks to look for my squadmates. I wasn't at all surprised to find them sitting at a table at the back of the mess-hall playing cards with a couple of the pilots from Beta Squad. Vivian saw me coming and grinned before waving me over to a seat next to her. I grinned back as I sat down and tried to put the past week behind me.


End file.
